[MUSIC PLAYING] Hi, I am James Maguire. And on today's IT roundtable we're talking about cloud migration. To discuss that, I'm joined by two industry experts. With me is Danny Sandwell, director of product marketing at Erwin. Danny, hello to you.
How are you doing, James?
Good, good. Also with me today is Tony Mauro vice president of consulting services at Erwin. Tony, good to have you on board.
Thanks, James. Good to be here.
All right, so let's talk about cloud. Cloud first and other cloud transformation initiatives continue to be among the top data projects that companies are pursuing for a number of reasons. There's operational advantages, competitive advantages. Danny, is this a key focus for the companies you're talking with?
Absolutely. I think everybody is sort of looking at it and in terms of not if, but when they make that move. And they're aligning it with a lot of other strategic requirements that they have. As we've all no doubt more aware than we want to be, things like COVID, and dramatic weather, and all sorts of other influences-- Organizations are looking at how they're configured. What is that key strain of things that need to be in place? And they're looking at ways of mitigating that risk by ensuring that they have everything that they need up and available, and really taking that off of their back and looking at it in terms of outsourcing that risk mitigation, making sure that things are in place.
They're also looking at modernizing their overall data architecture and their capabilities because there's a real drive to get more out of the data that they have in their organization. And what they're finding is that they need to modernize some of the architectures that have been built over time, built with an operational focus, maybe business intelligence and insights as a secondary add on that they've worked around that. Now they're looking at those insights as being the primary goal for their data. So as they look to modernize their approach and the architecture they have to support that, they look at that as a good time to move to cloud and reap the other benefits.
And of course when you look at the cloud and the capabilities that are up there from always available, the elasticity of processing and the ability to scale up when needed, and really only pay for the resources that you're using, it really drives into operational efficiency as well. So they're looking at transforming their business. They're looking at modernizing their capability, getting more out of data, mitigating risks, and really taking advantage of this point in time to really make some significant moves in terms of how they go forward with their business
Tony, what would you add there in terms of top data projects and cloud first?
Well, I mean, Dan is absolutely correct, right? It's no longer a question of when our clients are looking to migrate to the cloud or if they're going to migrate to the cloud. Just due to the current environment, it's absolutely a requirement. This is forcing everybody to fast track all of their cloud migration and improvement initiatives so that they can remain operational, not only remain operational, but also relevant in the marketplace. Because the companies that migrate to the cloud, they become more agile, they become more lean, and they can really focus on their business outcomes.
So it's no longer a question of when we're going to do it. It's we have to do it now. So these projects are coming up more and more. And our customers come to us because our product line supports all of these different aspects of migration and business transformation.
Well, what are some of the biggest challenges that companies face as they move their data to the cloud? I know it's not always easy. There may be some problems. Danny, what have you seen in this regard?
Well, the challenge is there's so many of them that they face, and it really depends on the sort of organization itself, how it's configured, its legacy, how it got to where it is today. We've seen lots of information out there. The average enterprise-- and we're talking large to a very large enterprise-- has more than six types of data running on more than 10 types of technology. So one of the initial challenges they have is understanding what they have and what's appropriate to move to the cloud, what's a priority to move to the cloud, and then making those decisions.
But then beyond that, the business is moving so rapidly, mergers, acquisitions, all sorts of things that are going on in the background, regulatory compliance new regulations, new schemes out there to make sure that people's data is being managed appropriately, things like that, very, very challenging for them. And then really just sort of looking at how they're going to get there, right? Because they have resource budget constraints, things like that. They want to make sure that the people that they have in-house are delivering true business value versus just keeping the lights on, if you will.
So looking at how that's going to change their organization, where they can reassess their resources. And then through it all, there's, in the background, this need for governance of data. And this is not something that's new. It's something that organizations have struggled with. But they're also seeing a challenge and an opportunity, where the challenge is to get good governance around their data, making sure that they're avoiding the risks, the data is not putting them in a place where they could get into trouble. But also, a big part of data governance is getting more out of that data.
So not just moving to the cloud and going from one mousetrap to another, but really leveraging this opportunity to make sure that when they get there, they are governed, they have all