Data sharing done the right way is a driver of innovation, competition and economic growth. It’s not uncommon for clients to approach us with questions surrounding it. How do we open up our data? What are the risks? We take a closer look.
Why do companies want to open up their data?
Traditionally, companies have tended to keep their data closed, so why would they now want to open it up? Normally, it comes down to one of these three themes:
- Revenue growth
- Reducing costs – by improving operational efficiency
- Improving reputation or customer experience
Companies want to encourage efficiency between the systems and departments within their business. They want more connection and collaboration between companies in their supply or value chain, which directly impacts bottom line profits.
Improving a customers’ experience by improving customer onboarding, or other processes that can be time consuming. By opening up their data, it is no longer trapped in systems of record, so the process is a lot quicker.
How can you open up your data?
APIs are what power this integration. Even if you are not intentionally sharing data via APIs through the “front door”, it is likely that you are exposing them through the “back door” if you have a mobile app or website.
What do you need to know before sharing your data?
It’s vital to share data in a way that is secure, reliable and scaleable. Not doing so can be extremely damaging.
Companies that you would expect to be masters of data sharing, have been exposed to cyber attacks:
- Facebook’s “massive data breach” in April 2021 affected millions of customer accounts and broke public trust.
- Other high-profile accounts have been hacked by “brute force attacks”, where hackers delete content, add their own content, or perform other damaging actions.
- System wide outages by “denial-of-service attacks” – usually aim to overload servers or systems with requests for data or access to resources like the processor or main memory.
The good news is that there are some products and tools that you can use to prevent against this. For example, using an API Management or a service mesh and various cloud platforms.
However, even when you have the right tools – you still need to figure out how to affect change in a lasting way and how you can setup a team to run the tools and processes on an ongoing basis.
That’s where Integrella come in.
We are active in this space do get in touch with us if you have any questions. Take a look at our video on Data Sharing to find out more.