The Gartner Data & Analytics Summit 2023 in Orlando (FL) lived up to its billing as the biggest vendor-neutral data conference so far this year. With more than 4,700 data practitioners and 100+ top data enterprises showcasing their solutions, the event provided a unique forum for insights into where the data market is now, and how it is going to impact the global economy in the future. Data Observability was the featured topic this year.
Gartner analysts, industry experts, and business leaders from diverse backgrounds spoke about a wide range of data trends, including generative AI, Data Observability, data engineering, analytics solutions, and much more. A majority of the sessions were packed to the brim, and the exhibit hall buzzed with lively conversations throughout the three-day event.
Highlight #1: Impactful discussions with influential data leaders and practitioners
It became quite apparent that the Gartner D & A Summit was going to be hugely valuable during my five hour flight from San Francisco to Orlando. Seated next to me was the Head of Data from a leading financial services provider, and we spent the entire flight discussing a wide array of data topics. We debated data platform spend, the data engineering talent pool, emerging categories such as Data Observability, tool proliferation, everything cloud, and more!
The Acceldata team led by our CEO, Rohit Choudhary and our GTM team had fantastic conversations with Chief Data Officers, Data Platform Leaders, Data Quality and Data Engineering leaders from across all industries. The topics of discussion varied as we spoke about critical issues these data leaders face, including data reliability, data quality, managing data pipelines, and more. Cost optimization was a universal pain point, and interestingly, hybrid cloud and multi-cloud is clearly now the norm.
Highlight #2: Insights from HCSC: “Building and Managing Data Products Using Data Observability”
In an interactive session, Satish Padiyar, Data & Analytics Solutions Divisional Vice President for Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) and Rohit Choudhary, CEO Acceldata discussed how HCSC is using Data Observability to build and manage data analytics products. Satish shared to a packed audience of data leaders how Data Observability for healthcare enables the delivery of critical, ongoing care and services for members and patients.
Rohit discussed how to address data supply chain issues as well.
Highlight #3: Data Products move to center stage
Acceldata has been discussing a holistic and strategic approach to “data products'' since our early days. It was interesting, and prescient, to see several Gartner sessions, data practitioner sessions, vendor sessions and exhibit hall signage emphasizing data products.
The focus on data products is not surprising, and it portends well for those who are responsible for building and optimizing data environments. Data products are services based on data, usually used for predictive and/or analytical purposes, that can be packaged and used to help enterprises make better decisions and improve their operations by leveraging the power of data.
Highlight #4: Data Observability is now a key focus area for data leaders
Our booth was the destination for everything Data Observability during the summit. Our data observability product experts were quite busy as they gave live demos of our solutions, and discussed how data teams can adopt “Data Observability” for their Data Quality, Cloud Cost Optimization, FinOps Governance, Pipeline and Data Infrastructure use cases.
Last year the common question was “What is Data Observability?”. In contrast this year, the questions were more practical and focused on “how to." It’s clear that there is rapidly growing demand among both data executives and data practitioners to implement Data Observability. Specifically, they are asking questions like:
- How can I use Data Observability with my current data platform and stack?
- I am spending too much on cloud data platforms. How can Data Observability help?
- How quickly can you replace my legacy data quality tool?
- Can Data Observability solve on-premises and cloud-native use cases?
- How can Data Observability help my data platform migration?
- Can Data Observability respond and provide the ability to remediate my data supply chain incidents?
- Do I need four separate products for the four forms of Data Observability?
In keeping with this focus, Gartner Research had several sessions on Data Observability. The standout session “Data Observability: A New Trend You Need to Know for Building Reliable Data Landscapes” was by Melody Chien, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner Research. Melody’s session was very informative, as it covered the basics of Data Observability and addressed how it helps data practitioners in today's complex and distributed data stacks.
Highlight #5: Thought-provoking Gartner Analyst sessions
Gartner analysts covered many CDAO and practitioner topics related to data management and analytics such as generative AI, AI maturity, AI risks, sustainability, FinOps, financial governance, data fabric, data mesh, data products, data quality, and a whole lot more.
In addition to the daily opening and closing keynotes, the following were my favorite sessions.
- “Twelve Actions to Improve and Sustain Your Data Quality” by Melody Chien
- “Data Observability: A New Trend You Need to Know for Building Reliable Data Landscapes” by Melody Chien
- “Executive Guide to Applied Observability” by Frances Karamouzis
- “Optimize Your Cloud Spending Strategy for Uncertain Times” by Adam Ronthal
- “5 Ways to Enhance Your Data Engineering Practices” by Robert Thanaraj
- “The Active Metadata Helix: the Benefits of Automating Data Management” by Mark Beyer
- “What Every CDAO Should Learn About Data Management” by Mark Beyer
- “The Practical Data Fabric — How to Architect the Next Generation Data Management Design” by Ehtisham Zaidi
Get started with Data Observability today
No matter where you are on your data journey, Data Observability can help you achieve your goals. Reach out to us for a demo of the Acceldata Data Observability Platform and get started in minutes.
- Girish Bhat
SVP, Acceldata
@girishb
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