How to prepare the cloud for AI

How to prepare the cloud for AI

With AI tools becoming commonplace, how do you best prepare your organisation to make the most out of the technology? Jim Liddle at Nasuni shares his thoughts 

Amber Hickman |


Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and organisations around the globe are seeking new ways to integrate it into their operations. However, the key question they should consider first and foremost is whether their organisation is ready for AI. 

For example, organisations will find it more difficult to use AI to extract value from their data if it is siloed in different locations or distributed across disparate, disconnected systems. The Nasuni File Data Platform consolidates all enterprise file data, from every location and user across the globe, into a single namespace in the cloud. 

Once data is securely stored and continuously updated, you can then tap into any one of several cloud-centric AI services and provide those tools with a broad dataset that truly represents your organisation. 

Another common impediment to AI success is access control. Organisations cannot turn to AI if their corporate access controls are not set up correctly because they need to know which data should, and should not, be made available to your chosen tool. The last thing you want to do is become non-compliant when you deploy AI.  

This is where the Nasuni File Data Platform is useful. The technology consolidates all your unstructured data while maintaining your established corporate access controls.  

Following this, organisations then need to understand the interactions between users and their data at a deeper level. Leveraging AI on a broad dataset covering a whole organisation will not necessarily generate insights relevant to specific users or teams. 

With the Nasuni File Data Platform, organisations can clarify who is using specific datasets and how they are using them. This information can then be extracted and used to map interactions between users and data. This provides a very specific level of data intelligence and allows your chosen AI tool to uncover meaningful insights.  

If AI is the lightbulb, and your own data is the electricity, Nasuni is the pipeline that feeds power to that appliance and illuminates the room. If you hope to effectively leverage AI as a large organisation, take the imperative first step with Nasuni to consolidate all of your data into one logical entity that is ready to be used with AI services.  

Jim Liddle

Jim Liddle is chief innovation officer of data intelligence and AI at Nasuni 

This article was originally published in the Summer 2024 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription. 

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