The Essential
Guide to
Enterprise
DataOps
What is
DataOps?
From data analysts, to marketers, to salespeople, every employee must now
drive results with data. But today’s under-resourced data teams are
overwhelmed by these growing expectations. To meet these new
requirements, companies must implement an organization-wide framework to
deliver high-quality data on-demand.
That’s why so many data teams are adopting DataOps. DataOps speeds up
the delivery of data and analytics to organizational stakeholders. The
following eBook will highlight everything data teams need to know about
DataOps, from agile development, to DevOps, to DataOps toolchains, and
much more.
Evolution from ETL to DataOps
For years, companies ingested data into on-premise relational databases
using self-built data connectors. However, this process was too slow and
expensive, and ETL tools gradually emerged for data ingestion. But issues with
database scalability, data transformation, and continued deficiencies with
data connectors limited the strength of the insights.
Years later, cloud data warehouses eliminated hardware scalability issues, and
ETL platforms began to close the gap in terms of data connectors. Ingesting
data was no longer the problem; transformation was. But soon, ELT platforms
began to transform data inside the cloud data warehouse, leading to the rise
in data lakes and unlimited insights from endlessly queryable data.
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Technology Goal Challenges
Early 2000s Relational Supporting massive Scalability
databases & volumes of on-
business intel premise data
2005-2010 Data Turning Data Manual data source
visualization into insights maintenance, data
formatting
2010s Cloud Moving to the Supporting a vast
revolution cloud - security, network of data
redundancy, sources. Manual
scalability data transformation
2020s Orchestration - Data touches Data agility at scale,
true DataOps everything and it's data science skills
technology stack multidirectional. gap, cross-
Product, marketing, organization internal
sales, leadership, customers, custom
customer success data streams
Today, the challenge facing data-driven companies is more about delivering
data than generating it. Now, everyone in an organization needs data, and
needs it in minutes, not in hours. However, most traditional ETL platforms are
still reinforcing an outdated framework that silos data and puts it only in the
hands of a “chosen few.” That’s why DataOps platforms are built for this new
era.
DataOps platforms do not just generate, but also deliver, the right insights, at
the right time, to the right stakeholder. With full data orchestration, DataOps
platforms automate the democratization of data, from start to finish. DataOps
platforms eliminate the rigid, top-down data culture facilitated by traditional
ETL platforms, for a bottom-up system that provides stakeholders in the
trenches with the data they need.
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Agile Data Development
Iterative & Incremental Sprints Rapidly Produce
the Right Data
In software engineering, agile is a development method based on adaptive
planning, flexible modification, and continuous improvement. Agile breaks the
development cycle down into smaller increments, called “sprints,” that last
anywhere from one to four weeks. During sprints, cross-functional
stakeholders collaborate throughout the process, spanning from planning, to
coding, to testing. At the end of the sprint, the software product is
demonstrated, and stakeholder feedback is incorporated.
DataOps applies agile development to data workflows, rather than to
software products. Teams harness DataOps to build data workflows that
automate data ingestion, transformation, and orchestration. Agile
development is used to construct the data infrastructure that powers these
workflows, such as data pipelines and SQL-based transformations. On a
granular level, this data infrastructure is just source code, or infrastructure as
code (IaC). Agile development treats IaC as a “software product.”
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Input from data
consumers, internal, Daily Standup Meeting
users, customers
Burn Up/
24 Hour
Down Chart Sprint
Scrum
Master
1-4 Week
Data Workflow The Team
Owner
Sprint Sprint Review
Assign tasks and
Set priorities: subtasks, Data
define data, Workflow architecture,
stakeholders, and responsibilities, and
delivery method timeframe Task Breakout
Finished Data Workflow
Orchestration Sprint Planning
Backlog Meeting Sprint Backlog
Sprint Retrospective
Within a DataOps framework, agile development relies on cross-functional
teams to execute “data sprints” that deliver data and analytics to targeted
stakeholders. Each team is composed of data managers (such as data
engineers) and data consumers (such as salespeople). Feedback from
stakeholders is incorporated continuously within the sprint process to quickly
improve and update data assets.
Some of the top-level advantages for agile development in DataOps include:
Faster delivery of data & analytics to stakeholders
Shortened development time for data infrastructure
More stakeholder input
Rapid adaptation to changing priorities
Constant updates & improvements to data assets
Agile development produces new data workflows, but DevOps is needed to
operationalize them.
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DataOps vs. DevOps
Combine Development and Operations to Push
Data Workflows Live
Traditionally employed in software production, DevOps combines software
development (Dev) with IT operations (Ops) to speed up time-to-launch for
high-quality software. Closely related to agile development, DevOps merges
the processes of building, testing, and deploying software into a single
framework.
Although DataOps derives its name from DevOps, DataOps is not simply
DevOps for data. The difference is that DevOps combines software
development and IT operations to automate software deployments, while
DataOps automates the ingestion, transformation, and orchestration of data
workflows.
DataOps automatizes the quick deployment of data infrastructure built during
the agile development phase. DevOps methods offer a number of advantages
to DataOps teams, including:
Source code management or version control, allows dev teams to
track and control changes in IaC, across different versions and time
periods. This streamlines code revision, reversion, and debugging.
Continuous integration (CI) integrates developer source code
with a mainline code branch, preferably several times a day. With
CI, developers never deviate too far from the main code branch.
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Automated testing performs automated tests on new source
code to provide the dev team with immediate feedback.
Executed along with continuous integration, automated testing
assesses factors such as security, API functionality, integrations,
and other factors that speed up time-to-delivery.
Continuous delivery (CD) tests new source code as a software
artifact (a.k.a. data infrastructure) in a staging environment to
ensure the quality and consistency before going live. This helps
avoid bugs and disruptions for users.
Continuous deployment (also CD) automatically pushes new
data infrastructure live into the production environment, ideally
in small, frequent intervals. This removes manual code merging
tasks and accelerates product updates.
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DataOps
Framework
DataOps team members develop data infrastructure in separate but nearly
identical environments, and push changes live with point-and-click
functionality after a predefined testing process. DataOps, like DevOps, relies
on automation to eliminate manual tasks and IT processes, for example:
Data orchestration automates entire data workflows, from ingestion, to
transformation, to delivery
Auto-syncing developer source code with main branch
Data infrastructure pushed live into production with one-click deployments
Until recently, teams could not apply the principles of DevOps to data
infrastructure. This was due to the technical limitations of on-premise
hardware. Unlike web and desktop software, data infrastructure relied on
massive, unscalable on-premise data warehouses and servers. This greatly
limited developer and test environments, continuous integration and delivery,
and other key DevOps processes.
But with the advent of cloud data warehouses, hardware limitations
disappeared. Now any team can simply clone the source code for data
environments, including data infrastructure, an unlimited number of times
within a cloud data warehouse. This unlocks a key facet of DevOps: running
multiple environments at once. DataOps team members can develop data
workflows in separate but nearly identical environments, and push changes
live in a single click after a predefined testing process.
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DataOps
Team
What Does an Effective
Team Look Like
DataOps is a flexible framework. By design, teams will include temporary
stakeholders during the sprint process. However, a permanent group of data
professionals must power every DataOps team.
Each organization will form a different DataOps unit. But in the DataOps
teams that we’ve worked with, certain skill sets are clearly in-demand. Here
are some of the personnel that often play key roles:
Chief The CDO, or a similar executive, is accountable for
data the overall success of the DataOps initiative. The
officer CDO is instrumental in driving the DataOps team to
(CDO) produce business-ready data that meets the needs
of both data consumers and leadership. He/she will
be responsible for the end-to-end business output
and results of the initiative, and guarantee data
security, quality, governance, and lifecycle of all data.
Data The data steward builds a data governance
steward framework for all of the different stakeholders
within an organization. He/she manages the
ingestion, storage, processing, and transmission of
data to internal and external systems. This forms
the backbone of the DataOps framework.
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Data The data quality analyst improves the quality and
quality reliability of data for consumers. The person in this
analyst role is tasked with automating the detection of
quality issues and addressing those issues during
sprints. Higher data quality translates into better
results and decision making for stakeholders.
Data The data engineer builds, deploys, and maintains
engineer the organization’s data infrastructure. This data
infrastructure pushes data from source systems to
the right stakeholder, in the right format, at the right
time. A data engineer might also possess some
data science skills, including modeling and AutoML.
Data The data scientist tells the story behind the data by
scientist producing advanced analytics and predictive
insights for stakeholders. He/she converts big data
into usable information, and charts optimal
company operations. These enhanced insights
enable stakeholders across the company to improve
decision making and produce stronger results.
Data/BI The data/BI analyst manipulates, models, and
Analyst visualizes data for data consumers. He/she
discovers and interprets data so stakeholders can
make strategic business decisions.
Beyond technical skill sets, DataOps team members must possess critical
personal qualities, such as leadership, communication, and the ability to work
with employees outside of the data team. But there is still a last piece of the
puzzle. DataOps teams must also have the right technology in place.
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DataOps
Toolchain
Combining
Technologies to
Power the
DataOps
Framework
Just as with DevOps, DataOps deployments have traditionally relied not on a
single technology, but rather on toolchains of different solutions. A DataOps
toolchain merges technology solutions with the other elements of the
framework - agile, DevOps, and personnel - to drive business value for
stakeholders.
An effective DataOps toolchain allows teams to focus on delivering insights,
rather than on building and maintaining data infrastructure. Without the right
toolchain, teams will spend a majority of their time updating data
infrastructure, performing manual tasks, searching for siloed data, and other
time-consuming processes.
These inefficiencies undermine the core advantages of DataOps, decreasing data
delivery speed and data quality. Although the specific technologies will vary,
IBM has identified five steps for constructing a successful DataOps toolchain:
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Implement Using a source control system such as GitHub,
source teams can keep a source code record for all data
control
infrastructure, ensuring repeatability, consistency,
management
and recoverability.
Automate Automation is essential for DataOps, and this
DataOps requires runtime flexibility for data workflows. To
processes achieve this, a toolchain must incorporate data
& workflows orchestration, data curation, data governance,
metadata management, and self-service
functionality.
Embed data In order to validate the functionality of data
and logic workflows, toolchains must test inputs and
tests outputs, and apply business logic to guarantee
data quality and relevancy.
Ensure In keeping with the principles of DevOps, DataOps
consistent toolchains must enable teams to operate in
deployment separate testing and production environments.
That way, the team can build and assess new
data infrastructure without disrupting the live
deployment.
Push A toolchain must automate notifications for key
communications events, from alerting stakeholders to data
availability, to flagging workflow failures for the
data team.
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DataOps
Platform
Managing DataOps All
“Under One Roof”
Companies often form DataOps toolchains by merging various technologies,
from ETL tools, to Grafana, to Kafka. But the friction between these
technologies, the lack of repeatability and agility, and the rising cost
inefficiencies diminish the ROI of DataOps. However, some new platforms
combine the capabilities needed to build and maintain DataOps frameworks
within a single solution, including:
Ingest any Ingest raw data from any data source, whether
data source an API source or an on-premise database, CRM,
ERP, or anything in between.
Robust data Use SQL, Python, or other business logic to
transformations transform data into the format stakeholders need.
Full data Facilitate DevOps by automating the entire data
orchestration workflow, from ingestion, to transformation, to
delivery.
Infrastructure Build and store data infrastructure, including data
-as-code pipelines, as code. Manage them as software
products during agile development.
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Version Keep records of your “software products” (i.e. data
control infrastructure) to ensure repeatability and
redundancy.
Create Generate separate data environments, from
separate sandbox development workspaces, to testing, to
environments live production.
One click code updates - Push data workflows live
into production with point-and-click, DevOps
functionality.
Automated Automatically deliver data to stakeholders,
data delivery internally, externally, or into a third-party app (i.e.
Salesforce). Notify stakeholders of data availability
through messaging apps (i.e. Slack) or email.
By combining capabilities such as these, DataOps platforms can significantly
reduce the friction points within a DataOps toolchain. With the right DataOps
platform, teams can maximize the methods, principles, and personnel of their
framework, and deliver data to stakeholders with speed and agility.
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DataOps: The New Paradigm for
Data Management
In today’s business environment, it’s a given that data drives the decision
making and actions of every employee, from CEOs to SDRs. The next decade
will usher in a renaissance of self-service analytics, with stakeholders across a
company expecting bespoke, on-demand data in the blink of an eye.
But in many regards, the future is already here. After all, data consumers live in
a world of one-click Amazon orders. How many times has a colleague
approached you, two hours before a board meeting, asking for data that
doesn’t even exist yet?
DataOps is designed for the rapid-fire data demands of today’s modern
company. As the market becomes more competitive, and organizational data
needs become more challenging, DataOps is a blueprint that enables data
managers to meet, and exceed, the high expectations of data consumers and
C-suite leadership alike.
Try DataOps Platform Now
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About Rivery
Rivery is a fully-managed DataOps platform for all your organizational data.
Automate, manage, and transform data so it can be fed back to stakeholders
as meaningful insights. Rivery equips your organization with all the
capabilities you need to conquer the modern data landscape, including:
Ingest Any Data Source Automate All Data Processes
Extract, import, and format all data Automate your entire data pipeline,
sources, within a single platform, by from extraction, to loading, to
harnessing Rivery’s universal transformations. Orchestrate all of
compatibility with all API data sources. your data in the cloud, from both in-
house and third-party platforms.
Deliver Data to Every Stakeholder Manage Your Entire Organization
Transform raw data into business- Democratize data for a diverse range
ready inputs for stakeholders so of employees, build, test, & deploy
they can perform insights, analysis, multiple data models, and oversee
and critical decision-making. any project or team with ease.
Please reach out to us if you have any questions about Rivery!
Learn More
www.rivery.io
For questions contact us: Follow us
[email protected]15 Rivery.io
