In recent years, data has been described as the new oil.

“This is because it has the potential to act as a significant differentiator for organisations that have the expertise and resources to gather valuable insights that business leaders can use to make decisions that drive the business forward,” says Johannes Kanis, Cloud and Enterprise Business Group lead at Microsoft South Africa.

Data has also proven to be a double-edged sword for modern organisations because it holds the promise of immense value, but requires an intensive investment of time, resources and expertise before that value can be unlocked.

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“An effective data and business strategy require giving the right decision makers access to the right data and insights so they are enabled to make decisions that will drive the business forward,” adds Kanis.

Cloud solutions like Azure Synapse Analytics, which Microsoft has now made generally available, bring together data integration, enterprise data warehousing and big data into a single service – with sound data governance at its core.

Read: You and your data dividend

“The beauty of the power of the cloud and big data analytics is that it offers agility and the ability to scale up or down according to business needs,” says Kanis. The ability to garner real-time insights and value through data also means that business leaders are equipped to make decisions that improve the customer and employee experience, optimise operations, products and services, and ultimately propel the business forward.

To find out why Microsoft believes most organisations are sitting on a data goldmine, and how best to take advantage of what this data offers, listen to this podcast discussion between Kanis and TechCentral editor Duncan McLeod.