UPDATED 13:39 EDT / SEPTEMBER 17 2020

BIG DATA

Io-Tahoe partners with AWS and TCS to advance automated data discovery in healthcare and the enterprise

Like a gold miner panning for riches in a fast-flowing stream filled with loose rocks and dirt, the process of data discovery is all about being able to sift through a confusing mess and extract items of real value.

That takes time and patience, two quantities in short supply for harried chief information and chief data officers in today’s enterprise. As a result, companies are moving beyond manually trying to curate an enterprise data catalog.

This has created a market opportunity for firms, such as Io-Tahoe LLC, to provide the kind of automated data discovery and adaptive data governance solutions needed to manage valuable information assets.

“We’re seeing a lot of value in helping customers discover their data using automation and automatically creating a data catalog,” said Ajay Vohora (pictured, left), Io-Tahoe’s chief executive officer. “A unified view is then being put to work through our APIs, using an open architecture to plug in whatever tool or technology our clients have decided to use. That open architecture is feeding into the reality of what CIOs and chief data officers are managing, which is a hybrid, on-premises/cloud approach to use best of breed.”

Vohora spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, as part of the Io-Tahoe’s SmartData Marketplaces event. In separate interviews, Vellante spoke with Ved Sen (pictured, right), digital evangelist at Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., and Vohora, as well as Stuti Deshpande, solutions architect at Amazon Web Services. They discussed big-data challenges and technology solutions in the healthcare industry and partnerships with AWS and TCS to leverage machine learning tools in data-exchange environments. (* Disclosure below.)

Watch the complete video interview with Vohora below:

Improving quality of life

The field of data discovery as a market is on a roll. One analysis forecasts a growth rate of nearly 20% annually, reaching $30 billion from its current $7 billion level by 2027. It has been propelled by challenges created from the mass of data flowing into businesses and governance demands as regulations grow to control online privacy.

Io-Tahoe has taken a proactive approach to the data discovery industry, examining ways in which the technology can be used to improve the quality of life for millions of people. One such area is healthcare. The company has formed partnerships with AWS and TCS to explore new solutions to a problem that has plagued the medical industry for many decades: lack of centralized patient data.

“There are probably up to 20 different organizations that have to collaborate to make sure you get that top-of-the-line healthcare service that you deserve,” Sen noted. “What prevents it from happening very often is what we would call data friction. The vision we need to be looking at is an effective data exchange or marketplace backed with a model where people agree and sign off on a data standard.”

Moving from reaction to prediction

Use of automated tools to discover and manage vast data stores could also transform the healthcare industry. AWS has embarked on an ambitious program to collaborate with healthcare providers, government agencies, public health organizations, and life science companies to support data-driven decision-making.

The goal is to give healthcare providers tools that will move the model toward anticipating illness before it becomes a reality.

“If you think about the healthcare industry, there has been a shift from reactive to predictive care,” Deshpande said. “We’ve observed that nurses who are supported by artificial-intelligence tools increase their productivity by 50%.”

Watch the complete video interview with Deshpande below:

TCS is working with Io-Tahoe to extend this model even further. Machine-learning algorithms and AI can be trained to read “cues” generated by sensors in the homes of the elderly, for example. The idea is to spot a potential problem before hospitalization or relocation to an elderly care facility would become necessary.

“We’re looking to sensor-enable homes of vulnerable people so that those data signals can come through to us in a curative manner,” Sen explained. “Ultimately, the healthcare system works much better if you can prevent rather than cure. Every dollar that you put into prevention saves three to five dollars downstream.”

While the healthcare industry provides an attractive use case for automated data discovery, Io-Tahoe is also witnessing a trend toward self-service and creative ways that data scientists and engineers can leverage analytic technologies. This has been fueled by the use of application programming interfaces and AI development tools, such as Amazon SageMaker, to generate new solutions for managing data.

“Now that we’re in an economy that’s digitally driven by APIs, your infrastructure, data, business rules, intelligence, modeling are all on the back of an API,” Vohora said. “So, the options become limitless in how you can drive value and exchange that data. It allows us to be more creative if we can understand what data has what value for a use case.”

Role of SageMaker

Amazon SageMaker was originally launched in 2017 to enable developers who were deploying machine learning models in the cloud. The fully managed service has been used for a wide range of applications, from eliminating 915,000 tons of packaging to locating oil and gas deposits.

“There are no integrated tools for the entire workflow process and deployment,” Deshpande said. “That is where SageMaker comes into the picture. SageMaker removes all of the heavy lifting and complexities from each step of the deployment of a machine-learning workflow.”

Removing the heavy lifting is also a key goal for Io-Tahoe as the firm seeks to implement its vision for automating data discovery and management across multiple platforms.

“We’re working with AWS and clients to manage the hybrid topology of some of that data being in the cloud,” Vohora said. “Amazon SageMaker and Io-Tahoe are being used to identify where the data is that needs to be amalgamated and curated. It all goes back to discovering that data, classifying it and indexing it in an automated way to cut those timelines down to hours and days.”

Saving time and money while creating outcomes that can provide real benefits to people, such as those in the healthcare field, are part of the reason that Io-Tahoe continues to build its business in automated data discovery. In a world seemingly dominated by complexity at every turn, the notion that automation can lead to simplicity is an attractive goal.

“The work we’re doing with Io-Tahoe is particularly exciting because it helps solve the foundational piece, to make it simple and easy to use for the end user,” Sen explained. “If you press a button and start a car, that’s simplicity. Someone has solved for that, and that’s what we want to do with data as well.”

Watch the complete video interview with Sen and Vohora below and check our theCUBE’s additional coverage of Io-Tahoe’s SmartData Marketplaces event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Io-Tahoe SmartData Marketplaces digital event. Neither Io-Tahoe LLC, the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE

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