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7 ways cloud-based data management will transform the maritime industry
08 February 2021
The maritime industry experienced a perfect storm in 2020, which
highlighted the need for many participants to accelerate their
digital transformation programs as they look to become more
data-driven. The COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical volatility and
cybersecurity breaches placed significant stress on marine
transport channels and motivated the industry to find better ways
of anticipating and reacting to complex and unpredictable
events.
The ability to ingest and use data more effectively will be
critical for adapting to a new way of working, but the increasing
volume, variety and velocity of data create challenges. For
example, recent research by the IDC analyst house found that more
than a third of maritime and shipping organizations are seeing
annual data growth of over 50%, while around three-quarters are
seeing growth of more than 20% (
read the full findings here).
Before industry participants can embrace digital transformation,
they must build a solid foundation of data management. Today, much
of the industry still relies on legacy software solutions that have
been implemented on-premise. To optimize their operations, they
should consider migrating their data management capabilities to the
cloud, where they can be managed on their behalf by a specialist
third party. This will deliver a range of benefits that support
true digital transformation, including:
Enhanced access and coordination
While data-sharing capabilities for air and land transport have
surged ahead in recent years, the maritime supply chain still
has some way to go, with valuable data often barricaded behind
firewalls. The inability to share data across a myriad of
interdependent participants who make up that chain is slowing
response times and creating costly delays, inefficiencies and
redundancies.
Transitioning data management to the cloud is the first step in
creating more fluid or even real-time data exchanges with trusted
partners and stakeholders across the broader supply chain,
connecting teams onshore and at sea. This type of data-sharing can
accelerate cargo hand-offs, dramatically improve utilization and
reduce energy consumption. As global waterways become more complex
and less predictable, organizations that prioritize visibility and
responsiveness through data will be positioned to maximize
profitability and mitigate operational risk.
Flexibility and scalability
Using the cloud offers the maximum flexibility and scalability.
Organizations can scale up (or down) their use of the cloud as
their needs evolve, ensuring they are ready to adapt quickly to any
changes in their operating environments (whether tactical or
strategic). This will lead to data and technology being an enabler
of growth for the organization, not a hinderance.
Service excellence
One of the most valuable aspects of a cloud solution is the
ability to leverage a managed service. This means utilizing the
resources, experience and expertise of a specialist third party to
manage the operation of your data management platform in the cloud
on your behalf (including infrastructure, the application, change
management and upgrades). This ensures the solution performs
optimally and frees up internal resources to focus on strategic
initiatives.
While access to reliable data and the ability to make
data-driven decisions are key competitive advantages, most maritime
organizations are not equipped (and have no wish) to become data
management experts. Leaving this function in the hands of a
dedicated managed services team ensures that terminal operators,
ports, shipping lines, charterers and other maritime players can
put 100 percent of their time and energy into what they do
best.
Security
Digital security was top of mind in 2020, as hacking activity
directed against the maritime industry saw
a staggering 400% increase during the first few months of the
pandemic. The last few years have shown that the cloud offers
robust security, with cloud infrastructure seeing an estimated 60%
fewer security incidents according to Gartner. Next-generation
cloud solutions built on platforms such as Amazon Web Services
(AWS) offer strong protection against the mounting cyber threat
because they have the resources to continually test and update
their solutions on a scale that on-premise teams are unable to
match.
Cost savings
The cloud enables organizations to reduce their total cost of
ownership (TCO) by avoiding the significant fixed overheads
associated with procuring and maintaining hardware and applications
in house. At a time of fluctuating costs, unpredictable capacity
and utilization, and rising insurance premiums, the cloud can help
maritime organizations realize savings and improve the
predictability of costs associated with data management.
Remote work
Throughout the pandemic organizations whose digital resources
are primarily cloud-based have been able to adapt to the needs of
remote workers and return to productivity more quickly. While
no-one can predict the longer-term effects of the pandemic, there
is no doubt that being able to connect a distributed, mobile or
remote workforce to the organization's data in a more agile way
will be an essential capability. As industry participants and their
customers need round-the-clock operations, cloud-based solutions
are a way to support users from multiple regions at any point in
time - something that existing, legacy, in-house technologies
struggle to do.
Continuity
Maintaining an on-premise solution exposes maritime
organizations to key person risk. That risk is magnified when the
organization is smaller and operates with a single data manager,
but even large, global operations with typically lean IT teams run
the risk of business interruption when key team members move on.
When data and the supporting technology are transitioned to the
cloud, responsibility for data management can be assumed by an
external managed services team, removing reliance on a single
individual or small team.
Conclusion
As supply chain demands increase and competition intensifies,
migrating data management operations to the cloud is becoming not
only attractive, but also necessary. As organizations embark on
digital transformation programs in a bid to become more
data-driven, tapping into platform providers' managed service
offerings will allow them to spend less time maintaining technology
and more time focussing on decision-making and delivering a premium
service.
Find out how our EDM for
Maritime platform is helping maritime and shipping
organizations embrace the potential of the cloud.