Yes, it’s time for some spring cleaning! Some of us might have to deal with GDPR soon, some of us want to optimize our DWHs and save money as well, some of us want to start with agile development, and some just want to migrate to the cloud! No worries, read on and see how MANTA can help.
GDPR
With GDPR, you need to address at least three areas related to physical persons – understand 1. what data you have; 2. where it is stored; 3. if you have consent to use it for a specific purpose; and what you are using the data for. Getting a complete understanding of which systems the person/related data elements are distributed, stored and used in is traditionally a lengthy and expensive process. However, items #2 (where your data is stored) and #4 (how you are using the data) are automated when you use Manta. This way you get an understanding quickly and, even more importantly, MANTA keeps that information up-to-date.
Migrating to the Cloud
When migrating your DWH to cloud technology, you need to be careful about what exactly you are migrating. For example, if you are Migrating Microsoft SQL Server to Azure, you are paying twice – once for the processing units (cDWUs), and once for the storage (DWUs). In this case, you want to make sure that you are transferring/migrating only what you need.
Your data warehouse, that has been developed over the last several decades, may (and likely does) contain obsolete or legacy parts that have not been used in a while or have even been decommissioned. MANTA can map your DWH and see which pieces of data are being used and which not.
Note: Even if you’re not migrating to the Cloud, you can still benefit from cleaning up the legacy or obsolete parts of your DWH. By removing the unused parts of your data warehouse, you may not only save on licenses by reducing the size of your DWH, but also reduce your operational costs (by not maintaining unused parts) as well as reduce the risk of using outdated or invalid data in the unused part of the warehouse. Automating such analyses gives you an immediate understanding which leads to immediate savings.
Sensitive Clouds
When you want to save space in your on-premise DWH by migrating some parts to the cloud but are afraid of security issues, you can always migrate only part of your warehouse. For example, MANTA can scan for all tables that are related to tables of sensitive data and show you where those data elements are being propagated and used. Then you can migrate only less sensitive data and save DWH space without losing your security status.
Sandboxing a Cloud
Another common use case in data migrations is when someone is trying to create a sandbox. You want to let a third party develop for your environment but don’t want to give them access to the entire environment, just a small part – in a copy! But first you need to find out exactly which records in your DWH are connected to your product so you don’t give too little or too much. This could take many hours, or even days, depending on your environment. But thanks to MANTA, you can automatically scan the data in a few minutes and identify the relevant pieces.