WHITE PAPER:

Accelerating Data
Modernization with Microsoft Azure
Why Microsoft's integrated data estate and third-party expert
support can help you get your data modernization strategy right
The roadmap for cashing in on digital gold processing, and makes integrating information into something
useful virtually impossible. The poor visibility and restricted
For the modern enterprise, the power of data is indisputable. flow of data from one database to another limits the value
Data can help organizations do everything from expand revenue and possibility of robust, revenue-driving analytics, while
streams and fuel competitive differentiation to improving the slowing the organization’s inevitable digital transformation
customer experience, protecting against threats, and optimizing efforts.
business spending.
Conventional approaches and systems also suffer from the
But achieving those results built-in constraints of available storage. Organizations can
isn’t a matter of simply having only store so much data. As the amount of data increases,
80% data. Instead, it’s a function they either need to buy more storage at considerable expense,
of building modern data push the data to backup, or sacrifice valuable data resources.
of enterprise business
management infrastructure While the rapid adoption of public cloud confers on companies
operations leaders say that not only stores an virtually unlimited storage capabilities, data still needs to be
DATA INTEGRATION IS organization’s ever-growing normalized, operationalized, and secured to create maximum
CRITICAL TO ONGOING amount of data but makes it value and utility.
OPERATIONS. accessible and actionable to
humans and machines alike.
Source:
Forbes.com The 3 Vs of data

A strong data modernization The three Vs of data highlight the importance of

strategy, backed by a 67% data modernization.
proven team of experts, of enterprises are relying
enables organizations on data integration to „ Volume is the amount of data
to further digital support analytics and BI „ Velocity is how fast data is being
transformation, expand
platforms today, 24% ARE
analytics capabilities, reduce generated
PLANNING ON IT IN THE
technical debt, and set
the stage for leading-edge NEXT YEAR. „ Variety is how data is always changing
machine learning and AI Source:
initiatives. What does it take Forbes.com
to get there?

This guide will help you develop a better understanding of the

strategies, philosophies, and technologies your organization
should consider for mapping the fastest, most effective route to
extracting maximum value from your enterprise data.

Why next-gen operations demand next-gen

technologies and strategies
Data modernization is more than just adopting new technologies
to help locate and secure your data. It’s about properly and
strategically categorizing data so that teams understand where Data modernization: today's business
it lives, how and when to use it, and how long to keep it. More imperative
importantly, it requires extensive and thorough planning, deep
data operations expertise, and the right tools to make the Modernizing your data infrastructure doesn’t just solve
strategy come to life. the problem of not enough storage. It supports must-have
services, solutions, and capabilities expected of enterprises
Traditionally, businesses have often relied on on-premises competing in a global digital economy and conveys a number
databases and point solutions to manage their data, which of business benefits that directly impact the organization’s
creates difficult to manipulate data silos, inefficient data most pivotal KPIs.

White Paper: Accelerating Data Modernization with Microsoft Azure 2

 „ Improving efficiency and productivity – Instead of one- Building the foundation of data modernization
size-fits-all data storage, a strategic data pipeline ensures
that different types of data are stored and processed with a scalable, adaptable platform
using the most appropriate tools. This approach
Data modernization means different things to different
eliminates redundant IT infrastructure for more efficient
organizations. Some teams may begin the process by
operations and maximizes data usage while minimizing
simply moving data storage from on-premises databases
expensive data movement and storage.
to public cloud, while other organizations may take a more
„ Reducing costs – Greater efficiencies also drive lower comprehensive approach, working toward the ability to build
costs. In addition to the cost savings inherent in the shift and run a complex data pipeline that is designed to meet
from on-premises to public cloud storage, modernizing specific data and business needs.
your data infrastructure reduces total cost of ownership
by leveraging existing services and only paying for what Most organizations understand the importance of data
you use. modernization, but getting there is easier said than done.
Few teams have the time,
„ Gaining more visibility and control – Breaking down
budget, and skill sets to
old-school data silos and uniting data in one platform
build the infrastructure
offers game-changing visibility and control. Instead of
in-house and then leverage
isolated snapshots into certain data sets, teams can now
the data efficiently. Worse, 84%
drill down and zoom out for both granular detail and the
once the infrastructure of organizations have data
big-picture view.
is built, it’s difficult and modernization initiatives
„ Boosting overall business performance – With a modern expensive to maintain.
FULLY IMPLEMENTED
data infrastructure, organizations can unlock insights It takes too long to
previously buried in inaccessible silos and use it to power
OR IN PROGRESS.
process the data, it’s not
technologies like AI. This improves financial planning for interoperable with other
stronger business performance, as well as accelerating Source:
systems, and the system
Deloitte
time to market for new products and services through ends up requiring far too
unified tools, processes, and governance. much feeding and care.
„ Enabling predictive and prescriptive analytics – AI and
Instead, enterprises can take a platform approach, using
machine learning capabilities also power predictive and
Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings like Microsoft Azure
prescriptive analytics. Platforms like Azure offer a number
reduce the complexity of the data pipeline and provide a
of analytics options to cover all use cases and types of
standardized set of tools and services for organizations to
data, so you can always get the insights you need, when
leverage — without having to build them from scratch.
you need them.
„ Enhancing the customer experience – Customer Azure is a flexible, adaptable, and scalable platform that
experience (CX) and engagement are paramount to enables organizations to mix-and-match a range of purpose-
virtually every business. A modern data infrastructure built tools to construct the right infrastructure for their unique
empowers teams to use enterprise data to reinforce requirements. Now, organizations can focus on making their
strong operations and improve upon weaker ones for a data active and accessible, across all of their previous silos, at a
continuously optimized CX. fraction of the cost of a homegrown system.

„ Bolstering security, privacy and compliance – By relying Better yet, if those requirements should change (and they
on platforms like Azure, organizations gain industry- likely will as the business itself and the competitive landscape
leading security, privacy, and compliance without continue to evolve), it’s easy to adapt and/or scale up and down
the burden of securing their own infrastructure. In as necessary. Data management platforms like Azure have
fact, a recent Deloitte survey found that security adopted a DevOps-like approach to modernization in which
and governance was the number one driver for data they support continuous integration and deployment of data
modernization initiatives. ingestion and transformation, for additional layers of speed and
No matter what business goals inspire data modernization, efficiency.
it’s critical to have the right tools. With a platform in place,
organizations can systematically and strategically orchestrate
operations to accomplish their objectives.

White Paper: Accelerating Data Modernization with Microsoft Azure 3

Why Microsoft Azure is a sure bet for data Creating the ideal data pipeline for your
modernization business with the Azure data estate
Microsoft Azure offers an ideal platform for companies to The Microsoft Azure platform is particularly dynamic for data
execute their data modernization initiatives. Azure provides modernization because it can be customized to any organization’s
a comprehensive suite of data management and analytics business requirements. Structured or unstructured data; storage,
solutions that, when combined with the expertise and compute, or visualization; AI, ML, ETL, ELT — with Azure, the
insights from a reputable and experienced cloud solutions configuration options are virtually limitless.
provider, can accelerate modernization and transformation
initiatives that help enterprises become more efficient, agile, Services like those detailed below include built-in connectors to
and competitive. other Azure services as well as third-party applications, making it
easier than ever to construct a customized data pipeline specific
Azure’s expansive data estate makes it easy for organizations to to your company’s needs.
mix-and-match components and create a high-performance, agile,
and scalable data pipeline that makes sense for their business. Azure Data Lake

With Azure, enterprises can significantly increase their business Azure Data Lake is a
agility and return on their IT investments by eliminating no-limits data lake that
redundancies, consolidating their IT footprints, and using (and enables organizations
63%
paying for) only what they need. At the same time, the platform’s to store and analyze
LOWER TCO
robust security and governance capabilities and tight native data of any size, shape,
and speed, including A recent study showed that
integration among data tools helps to ensure that data remains
petabyte-size files and HDInsight, part of Azure
safe, while still enabling the free flow of information in an
ecosystem built for AI and intelligent apps that gives companies trillions of objects. Built Data Lake, reduced TCO by
a natural gateway to the cognitive enterprise. for the modern big data 63% compared to deploying
world, Data Lake can Hadoop on premises over
What does data modernization with Azure look like process data across
five years.
in practice? platforms and languages Source:
and makes it simple Microsoft
With Azure, organizations no longer face the limits of physical to develop massively
disk and server processing power in their data centers. Instead, parallel programs and debug and optimize big data programs.
they can get out of the relational database management system
(RDBMS) box and store structured data in NoSQL storage via Data Lake integrates with existing IT investments, including
Cosmos DB. identity, management, security, operational stores, and data
warehouses. It offers enterprise-grade security, auditing, and
They can store unstructured files in the petabyte-scaled Azure support alongside the speed and scalability required to keep
Data Lake and ingest data with a variety of services including IoT pace with modern business. Data Lake is affordable as well, with
Hub, Event Hub, and Data Factory. Using Azure services, the data multiple pricing options and no hardware, licenses, or service-
is encrypted and at rest, and once the data is available in Azure, specific support agreements required. You can even scale
organizations can gain deep insights into it using AI and analytics storage and compute independently for maximum economic
services like Stream Analytics, Cognitive Services, Machine flexibility.
Learning, and Power BI.

White Paper: Accelerating Data Modernization with Microsoft Azure 4

Azure Synapse Analytics Power BI on Azure

Azure Synapse is an on-demand query service that can be used Power BI on Azure turns the analytics unlocked from other
for unpredictable workloads or ad-hoc analysis of data stored in Azure services into actionable business insights that anyone
your data lake. Synapse combines data integration, enterprise can understand. A unified self-service and enterprise analytics
data warehousing, and big data analytics into one robust solution for data visualization, Power BI on Azure delivers
solution built to power cutting-edge BI and machine learning insights at scale to promote a data-driven culture across the
processes. enterprise.

Like other Azure components, Synapse offers industry-leading With Power BI, organizations can leverage native AI and
speed and scale. It uses the freshest possible data from machine learning to connect to and model any data. Reports are
operational systems, so you are always up to date, and allows easy to create, view, and share, using conversational language
you to query both relational and non-relational data, using either to provide insights in users’ own words. Power BI seamlessly
serverless or dedicated resources, at petabyte scale in your integrates with hundreds of data sources, including other Azure
preferred language. Synapse also integrates seamlessly with analytics services, to reduce complexity and get more value from
Azure Machine Learning, Cognitive Services, and Power BI for an the entire data estate.
end-to-end analytics stack.

Azure Databricks
Example Azure use case: IoT Edge device
Azure Databricks is another analytics option designed
for developing data-intensive applications. It offers two
in a temperature-controlled truck
environments: Azure Databricks SQL Analytics, for running,
exploring, and visualizing SQL queries on a data lake, and
Azure Databricks Workspace, which reads data from multiple A large food distributor uses a system to
data sources and translates it into insights through Apache monitor temperature inside their climate-
Spark.
controlled trucks to understand the condition
Databricks integrates with open-source libraries and data of food products when they reach their terminal
science frameworks to give data scientists and engineers the
destination. The solution uses an Azure IoT
insights they need to build powerful AI applications. It simplifies
collaboration and boosts productivity with shared workspaces Edge device and one or more sensors inside the
and common languages, while large-scale data processing truck’s trailer.
for batch and streaming workloads enables reliable data
engineering.

Azure Data Factory The Edge device collects datas on a set schedule

Azure Data Factory empowers organizations to integrate (e.g. 1/hour, 2/hour, 4/hour, 60/hour). This
all their data through a fully managed, serverless data data is stored on the Edge device until it gains
integration service. Data Factory includes more than 90 built-in
internet connectivity (either WiFi or 4/5G
connectors to orchestrate and ingest data from on-premises
and SaaS sources. With Data Factory, teams can build ETL and cellular). The data is then sent though Azure IoT
ELT pipelines code-free or write their own code, then gain Hub to Azure Stream Analytics and finally stored
insights from their data via integration with Azure Synapse
Analytics. in Azure Cosmos DB. The data is visualized by
the customer using a Power BI dashboard.
Data Factory is easy to use and cost-effective, with an intuitive
interface, autonomous ETL, on-demand scalability and pay-as-
you-go pricing. It simplifies data integration and transformation
across your infrastructure to modernize SSIS and inform digital
transformation initiatives.

White Paper: Accelerating Data Modernization with Microsoft Azure 5

 5 reasons to choose OneNeck + Azure for
your data modernization initiative

OneNeck + Microsoft Azure: The turn-key 1. Faster time to value. No need to learn Azure,
solution for fast, effective data modernization put together a plan, and build out a POC --
on top of your day job. We’ve helped dozens
While the breadth and depth of Azure make it a tremendous
platform for data modernization and more, it can also be of companies to quickly and efficiently
overwhelming. Navigating the array of services in the context determine the right data modernization
of business requirements and resource availability is no small
task, especially for organizations near the beginning of their data strategy for their requirements.
modernization journey.
2. Easy to use and maintain. Unlike homegrown
That complexity is precisely why many businesses look to a
systems, Azure is comprehensive, intuitive,
trusted partner to support their data modernization initiative.
In fact, a recent Deloitte Insights report found that 44% of and always up to date. You get industry-
organizations plan to or already employ outside services as leading performance without any of the
part of their data modernization planning and implementation
OneNeck offers decades
headaches of ownership and with the benefit
of experience and deep of Azure experts at your side.
expertise in tailored tech
stacks for virtually any 3. Lower cost, less friction. Instead of spending
44% goal or objective. We bring
money on data storage and processing that
extensive knowledge of
of organizations PLAN TO
SQL servers and private/ you may not need, you can right-size your
OR ALREADY EMPLOY
public cloud storage investment and leverage pay-as-you-go
OUTSIDE SERVICES for as well as an intimate
data modernization. understanding of the
pricing. That means more budget for other
Microsoft ecosystem. With digital transformation initiatives.
Source: OneNeck, organizations
Deloitte gain a proven guide to using 4. The right tools for your objectives. We
Microsoft Azure for data
don’t believe in one-size-fits-all projects.
modernization.
Whether you want to capture your data more
OneNeck’s data modernization services are comprehensive and
efficiently, access better BI and insights, or
ongoing, including helping our customers understand, migrate,
ingest, store, and leverage their data with tools and AI built into just save money by shifting to the cloud, we
Azure. As part of this process, we will: can help get you there.
„ Work with you to understand your data and applications
5. The team you need. As budgets shrink, tech
„ Deploy infrastructure and middleware to serve those
applications speeds up, and great talent becomes harder

„ Integrate data flows and processes than ever to find, it can be challenging to

„ Offer custom services for processes associated with data prioritize initiatives. OneNeck serves as an
flows and the workings of your applications extension of your team so you can accomplish
„ Utilize an IT operations/service system that is based on more, faster and more effectively.
ITIL as a foundational ecosystem

White Paper: Accelerating Data Modernization with Microsoft Azure 6

A data modernization partner you can trust
Data modernization is a modern business imperative for unlocking the true value of increasingly huge volumes of enterprise data. But
modernization doesn’t happen with the flip of a switch. It requires extensive planning, deep data operations expertise, and the right tools
to make any plan or strategy come to life.

Microsoft Azure provides a comprehensive suite of data management and analytics solutions that, when combined with the expertise
and insights from a reputable and experienced cloud solutions provider, can accelerate modernization and transformation initiatives that
help enterprises become more efficient, more agile, and more competitive.

If your organization aims to modernize your data management infrastructure to enable digital transformation, greater analytics
capabilities, and machine learning/AI services, you’ve come to the right place. With OneNeck, you benefit from a trusted partner with
extensive experience in data architecture, Gold level partnership with Microsoft, and deep expertise in all things IT to help you navigate
complexities, reduce technical debt, and achieve maximum value from your data.

Unlock the power of your data. Schedule your consultation to see how OneNeck can guide you to data modernization success.

About OneNeck IT Solutions

OneNeck IT Solutions LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc., employs nearly 500 people throughout
the U.S. The company offers multi-cloud solutions, combined with managed services, professional IT services, hardware and local
connectivity via top-tier data centers in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon and Wisconsin. OneNeck's team of technology
professionals deliver secure, modern platforms and applications for organizations embracing data-driven transformation and secure end-
to-end solutions. Visit oneneck.com.

Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. [NYSE: TDS], a Fortune 1000® company, provides wireless; cable and wireline broadband, TV and
voice; and hosted and managed services. TDS has approximately six million connections nationwide through its businesses U.S. Cellular,
TDS Telecom, OneNeck IT Solutions LLC and TDS Broadband Service. Recently, TDS has been named to three Forbes lists: America’s
Best Employers for Diversity, Best Large Employers, and Best Employers for Women. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Chicago,
TDS employs 9,400 people. Visit tdsinc.com.

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