Digital transformation promises many things to organizations. By moving data to, for example, a hybrid cloud, organizations can solve all data issues and everyone will be profitable and live happily ever after. Right? Well, any company that undertakes a journey of digital transformation needs to realize that data is no longer stagnant, living in a so-called data lake; but rather, that data is constantly moving and flowing, more like data streams and rivers, according to Alan Nance (pictured), executive vice president at Virtual Clarity Ltd.

“What I’ve seen, in many [digital] transformations I’ve been involved in, is speed is of the essence. When a CEO comes in and they think they have time … it doesn’t matter if they’re from the outside or if they’re come up through the ranks, they almost always seem to underestimate their ability to do change in time,” said Alan Nance (pictured), executive vice president at Virtual Clarity Ltd.

Nance’s company has created the concept of precision-guided transformation, rolled out in 90-day increments so that organizations see progress right away. The idea is to combine the insights on the business side with the knowledge on the technology side to create a better working model for organizations.

During the DataWorks Summit in Munich, Germany, Nance joined John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, to discuss what hybrid cloud can’t fix, as well as who should own the data in an organization. (*Disclosure below.)

Data gravity and responsibilities

While the recent technology emphasis has been on processing and analyzing data, Nance believes that there has been a disconnect in many organizations.

Hybrid cloud solutions alone do not solve a multitude of problems he has seen in many companies, such as the challenge of data gravity, a concept from Dave McCrory around how data attracts more data, creating latency issues when you move to the edge, Nance explained. Nor do solutions address what happens when transformations create great amounts of data that flow back into legacy systems that cannot handle it.

Finally, there’s often an ongoing issue of stewardship; who, exactly, is in charge of the data within an organization?

Nance believes this to be the responsibility of the COO, rather than the CIO or CDO, as digital transformation exists in a virtual world and no longer in a world of CAPEX and balancing assets.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of DataWorks Summit 2017 EU. (*Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner at DataWorks. The conference sponsor, Hortonworks, does not have editorial oversight of content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE