The Real Data Enemy (Spoiler Alert: It’s Not Bob In InfoSec)

I spend a lot of my time talking to people around data challenges in some of the world’s largest companies. As you can imagine the size and complexity of their issues can be very daunting. Each company brings its own mix of people, process, and technology to the table, making every situation unique. And, interestingly, the older the company is the more complicated the issues as history (time) adds a fourth dimension.

But, about 9 months ago, the leadership at Delphix set out to help simplify this complex process; not with technology, but with language. One of my favorite outcomes is the concept of “Data Friction.” The best way to describe data friction is the resistance encountered when constraints on data prevent people from meeting the ever-growing demands of business.

Data Friction is the resistance encountered when constraints on data prevent people from meeting the ever-growing demands of the business.

Data friction not only applies to Delphix customers, but transcends all data and uses and the concept can be applied in the absence of Delphix to help organizations excel.

This concept has allowed our customers to talk about the problems, rather than pointing fingers and getting bogged down in political/personal concerns. For example instead of “Eric in the DBA group always takes three days to complete my restore”, you could now say “When I need a database restore, it takes three days. This is a point of data friction for me because my environment is unusable that whole time and can put me off schedule.”

It’s similar to when you go to the doctor. When the doctor asks you what brings you into the office, she isn’t expecting you to tell her that you have Lupus and need treatment. Instead, she wants you to tell her where it hurts so that she can then root cause and treat the symptoms in a scientific and fact-driven manner.

Below is a video that I put together that is a slightly more detailed rendition of my data friction primer I give. I hope you find it useful.