There is a difference between a business that uses Big Data and one that truly understands Big Data. Increasingly, that difference is survival. A company’s data is often now its most valuable asset, but that value can change depending on how the business makes use of the data. To be useful, an organization must quantify the value of its data and develop ways to make strategic use of the insights the data provides.

To gain some insight into the value of data, John Furrier (@furrier) and Peter Burris (@plburris), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, visited the Informatica World 2016 conference in San Francisco. There, they spoke to Jim Davis, executive VP and CMO at Informatica Corp.

Making data a strategic asset

“Let’s talk about why we’re using the technology and what kinds of business problems we’re looking to solve,” Davis said, opening the conversation. Data, he explained, has reached the point where it’s a strategic asset within an organization. They have to be able to leverage it.

Deployment options and the technology is extremely robust these days, Davis said. All the tools are there, so the question becomes, how ready is the organization to tackle the task of making data a strategic asset? It gets everyone focused on the effort of utilizing data for strategic decision making, he said.

Talking about data

We should be talking about data with business benefit in mind, Davis said. A company shouldn’t do anything until they can quantify the value to the business. What are the things the company wants to accomplish? Look at the technology that solves the problem, and then promote that tech in the organization as a way for the problem to be solved.

“If I’m grading an organization on how well they’re using data, it can be felt on a cultural scale,” Davis said. What data sources does the business trust, and what sources does it explore without making serious business decisions? A company, Davis said, that understands the difference is heading in the right direction.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Informatica World 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE