As the global COVID-19 pandemic has shown, it is imperative for enterprises to be able to respond quickly to uncertain and constantly changing business environments. But how to prepare for such unknowns?

The combination of cloud computing and data analytics is what can give organizations the agility they need to adapt even in difficult times, according to Steve McMillan (pictured), president and chief executive officer of Teradata Corp.

“Amazon Web Services, as a cloud provider, can provide that level of agility,” he said. “What Teradata does sitting on top of AWS is provide a level of business insight that enables companies to use their data to dynamically respond to the situation that are in front of them today, even if that changes day by day or hour by hour or minute by minute.”

McMillan spoke with Keith Townsend, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent. They discussed how organizations can adopt cloud analytics to improve performance, expectations for the use of Teradata’s tools post-pandemic and how to address the cost-return question. (* Disclosure below.)

Extending capabilities to the cloud

In the analytics industry for over 40 years, Teradata sees the cloud as an exciting opportunity to give customers another deployment option, according to McMillan. “We’re looking at how we can take our capabilities from on-prem and extend those into the cloud, and that’s really what a lot of Teradata’s existing customers are looking for,” he said.

The huge amount of data generated constantly overwhelms companies and imposes the need for them to create a data strategy.

“There’s never a day in the world where there’s less data than there was the day before, and coping with that explosion of data, getting real insights so that you can work out what you’re going to do, that … forms the basis of a long-term data strategy,” McMillan said.

To deal with the growing volume of data, companies need to address the cost-return issue, so Teradata offers tools to customers to keep track of it. One is a cost calculator available on its website that allows organizations to simulate costs and compare with other options.

“We’ve got consumption-based pricing models that enable that return on investment curve to be really early in the process of using our technologies,” McMillan said.

To ensure that customers get the most value from their cloud analytics, Teradata has imported some of its on-premises technologies to this new environment, such as query optimization and workload management.

“And that gives our customers a degree of control in that environment that they wouldn’t otherwise have,” McMillan said.

Here’s the complete video intervie, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure: Teradata sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Teradata nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE