It has been a year in which the data conversation stopped revolving around “which tool do I buy?” and shifted to “how do I organise all of this?”. 2022 did not bring a single revolution, but rather the maturing of several ideas that had been brewing for a while. Let’s trace the thread of the year before looking ahead to 2023.
The thread of the year: data architecture takes centre stage
If anything defines 2022, it is that the conversation moved towards architecture. How to structure, organise and govern data mattered more than any single tool.
- Data mesh and data fabric. The two approaches that spilled the most ink this year. The first proposes decentralising data ownership by business domain; the second, laying down a technology layer that integrates and automates access. They are not mutually exclusive, and much of the year was spent working out which one fits each organisation’s reality. We covered it in data mesh vs data fabric.
- The modern data stack. The set of cloud-native, modular tools —ingestion, storage in the data warehouse, transformation and visualisation— became the default way to build a data platform. We explained it in what is the modern data stack.
- The rise of governance and quality. As data is democratised, the need to govern it grows. Data quality stopped being a second-tier technical chore and became a business condition: without it, everything else wobbles.
- Augmented analytics. The idea that the software itself should help explore the data and surface findings —augmented analytics— steadily gained ground inside the platforms, bringing data closer to those who are not analysts.
The link between all of them is the same: in 2022 the challenge was no longer getting data, but making it reliable, accessible and useful to more people.
The platforms: few changes, plenty of consolidation
On the tooling front, the year was one of reaffirmation rather than surprises. Microsoft was named a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Analytics and BI Platforms in 2022, consolidating Power BI’s momentum. Qlik and Tableau remain solid market references, each with its own philosophy: Qlik’s associative engine versus Tableau’s visual exploration.
For most companies, the good news is that the leading trio of tools is mature and reliable. The difference between projects that work and projects that do not is rarely which one was chosen, but how it was implemented: data model, governance and adoption.
A December note: ChatGPT arrives
We cannot close the review of the year without mentioning what happened just a few weeks ago. ChatGPT was launched on 30 November 2022, and within days it has put conversational artificial intelligence on everyone’s lips, inside and outside the sector.
A note of caution is in order: it is far too early to know what role it will play in data analysis. It raises obvious questions —will we be able to query our data in natural language? Will it help write queries or document models?— but for now those are just that: questions. There are as yet no mature products or proven use cases in Business Intelligence. The sensible thing is to watch it closely without being swept along by the noise.
What we can sense for 2023
Without indulging in prophecy, a few directions look clear:
- Architecture will keep leading. Data mesh, data fabric and the modern data stack are not one-year fads; the work of ordering them is only beginning.
- Governance and quality, ever more central. The more data is democratised, the more it matters that it is reliable.
- AI, a large question mark. We will have to see whether December’s enthusiasm turns into real tools for data or stays a promise. 2023 will give the first clues.
We will see next year. For now, the best investment remains the one it always was: a tidy, governed, well-modelled data foundation, on which any novelty —wherever it comes from— adds value instead of amplifying the mess.
At Digital Fox Data we help build that foundation and get the most out of your BI tools through our Business Intelligence consultancy. If you want to start 2023 with your data in order, let’s talk.