This article was originally written by Avanade alumn Luke Pritchard.

In the world of digital transformation and cloud migrations, enterprises will need to thrive to survive.  With data as THE key ingredient, these are exciting times for businesses looking to gain a competitive advantage; some experts have even termed data as the “new oil.” According to Gartner, by 2023, 75% of all databases will be on a cloud platform, reducing the DBMS vendor landscape and increasing complexity for data governance and integration Companies that evolve, will be equipped to leverage data, analytics, and AI and realize business value. 

Cloud and modern analytic tools offer enterprises the ability to scale the use of data science and AI throughout their organization to drive new efficiencies, enhance customer and employee experiences and create new business models, while creating a robust data ecosystem. However, many enterprise organizations struggle to mature small AI POC's and data science experiments to an industrialized use of data science and AI. 

From our work with clients we have seen two main groups emerge: those who have been experimenting with AI and data science who are now looking to operationalize and scale their progress; and those who find themselves stalled by legacy systems. Clients in the latter group are limited in their ability to fully use data the way that they need to, limiting business process advances and missing out on the benefits of the cloud. When done well, they can better compete on par or ahead of the competition. 

According to Harvard Business Review, only 8% of firms engage in core practices that support widespread adoption.  However, we have seen a higher rate of success when clients take a value/design led approach, prove value before scaling, and shift to an agile approach, leveraging the skillsets of multi-disciplinary teams and iterative improvements. 

Databricks is a key component in many client journeys to scale AI and unlock the value of disparate and complex data. Clients are looking to quickly modernize to cloud services such as Azure Databricks, unblocking progress with proprietary and expensive systems. Regardless of where clients sit in their digital transformation or cloud migration journey, there is still plenty of time and opportunity to transform the value driven from their data leveraging the Azure Platform and Azure Databricks. 

Avanade is excited to be a Platinum Sponsor at the upcoming Spark AI event in Amsterdam. If you’re attending – drop by and say hi and learn more about how we’re helping clients transform their businesses alongside Azure Databricks.