Microsoft, SAP, Adobe Launch New Data Alliance to Tear Down Silos

The Open Data Initiative, launched today by Microsoft, Adobe and SAP, aims to help firms to extract more value from their data to power AI-driven projects, improve privacy and provide a broader spectrum of real-time insights.

The three software giants unveiled the new project in an announcement at the Microsoft Ignite conference in Orlando, FL.

The Open Data Initiative (ODI) will involve the three partners boosting the data exchange and interoperability between their various platforms and applications through a common data model. These platforms will include: Microsoft Dynamics 365, Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Experience Cloud, S/4HANA and SAP C/4HANA.

See also: SAP provides conversational interface to analytics

The unified data model will enable the use of a common data lake service via Microsoft Azure. The common data store will give customers their pick of development applications and tools to develop and deploy services.

“Organizations everywhere have a massive opportunity to build AI-powered digital feedback loops for predictive power, automated workflows and, ultimately, improved business outcomes,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a news release.

The potential of artificial intelligence improvements are key to the ODI say the companies. The enhanced data exchange among the three tech giants promises AI-driven processes that can help clients extract actionable insights from operational and behavioral data.

Key among the ODI’s objectives is the elimination of data silos to give the customer real-time insights in a single view. Not only will this unified approach boost efficiencies, but will also allow firms to better support security and privacy aspects of their business, as well as enhancing data governance.

The companies also say that the unified data exchange will feed business applications greater volumes of critical data to make them more effective and allow them to develop new AI-powered services for their customers.

“Together we will give enterprises the ability to harness and action massive volumes of customer data to deliver personalized, real-time customer experiences at scale,” added Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.