Big data is everywhere these days. Data is collected along every step of an organization's activity, including product development, manufacturing, supply chain, operations, sales, and customer support. Businesses today experience no shortage of data in terms of quantity; the challenge is tapping into the enormous potential of that collected data and extracting value from it as a resource.

The days when siloed, monolithic data stores were the rule is long gone, and those that are still standing are insufficient for business needs in today's digital world. As part of its digital transformation, Microsoft is modernizing the data estate to unleash the power of Artificial Intelligence.

Modernizing its data estate has meant uniting data from across its entire enterprise, making it discoverable, trustworthy, understandable, and trackable. This has allowed the company to optimize it for advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI that have transformed its business. Microsoft has taken several steps towards modernizing its data estate and unleashing its full potential.

Modernizing a data estate isn't always easy; it involves introducing fresh processes, using new tools and champions to see cultural changes through. Microsoft has been going through this shift. The company worked to start treating its data as a strategic asset and take full advantage of the opportunities presented by AI. Here's the story of how transitioning to a fully modernized data management framework became a key factor in its overall business transformation.

One of the building blocks of digital transformation is a modern data and analytics platform that harnesses data's power to reveal patterns and make predictions. Being able to understand and tap into these predictions helps fuel digital transformation for enterprises worldwide, including here at Microsoft.

Implementing a modern data and analytics platform allows the company to gather, store, and process data of all types and sizes from any data source.

This deeper data understanding unlocks valuable insights, making it easier to identify trends and risks that help Microsoft ships on time, provide a quality product for its customers, cut down on business costs, and optimize internal operations.

At Microsoft, the data and analytics platform drives the company's business forward. With the power of AI and machine learning at their fingertips, businesses across the globe are transforming the way they handle the breadth and depth of big data. At Microsoft, applying these technologies to its modernized data estate has helped uncover profound business insights that the company never knew existed.

In addition to unearthing actionable insights, approaching data with advanced analytics allowed Microsoft to report more accurate financial forecasts, discover new product and service opportunities, streamline operations, and enhance its customers' experience.