Denodo organized a round table in Milan called date arena, to discuss topics related to data management, artificial intelligence and information security.

The event was moderated by Andrea ZinnoSales Director and Data Evangelist at Denodo, and was attended by Gabriel ObinoRegional VP and GM Southern Europe and Middle East of Denodo, Daniel Bobba by Deloitte Italy, Raniero Romagnoli of Almawave and two representatives of the academic world: Richard Torlone of the Roma Tre University, e Silvana Castano of the University of Milan.

The ice was broken by Silvana Castano, Director of the Computer Science Department of the University, who addressed the issue of search for skills by companies and the educational offer proposed by the university world.

In recent years, university attention to the needs of the corporate world has grown considerably, as evidenced by the curriculum in data science for the master’s degree and especially the request for data management and coding courses who come from many faculties and degree paths, from those related to the environment to medicine.

A data driven approach

Gabriele Obino, Regional VP and GM Southern Europe and Middle East of Denodo, underlined the importance of data management in modern businesseswho increasingly adopt a data-driven approach to make informed and targeted decisions.

The growing amount of data that companies produce and collect requires industry professionals to have appropriate training to handle them efficiently and transform them into useful information for the business.

Gabriele Obino, Regional VP and GM Southern Europe and Middle East of Denodo

Furthermore, the rapid growth of data has made the need for even more important extract value from the information contained. This value can only be obtained through adequate data governance, which makes it possible to optimize the management of the data itself and to use it effectively to support business decisions.

Raniero Romagnoli, Chief Technology Officer of Almawave, then took the floor and underlined how data management is a complex topicwhich requires many precautions, also due to the many regulations governing the use of information in the various fields.

There are cases of great relevance, such as for example the training of artificial intelligence models, that require extreme attention and caution, and it is important that we can know what data and what algorithms have been used.

Raniero Romagnoli, Chief Technology Officer of Almawave

Especially in this early phase of the introduction of artificial intelligence, ensuring the explainability of the decision can help fill the gap the trust gap that is still present in a significant part of public opinion and also within many companies.

Trusted data

Also for Daniele Bobba, Partner and Big Data & Insight Driven Organization Leader of Deloitte Italia, the reliability of the data is a fundamental requirement.

Companies are ready to take up the challenges of this new era, and are hungry for talent. The shortage of specialized figures it is a problem reported by all the participants in the event, who have remarked several times how the rapid change in the technological panorama puts both companies and the university world in difficulty.

Daniele Bobba, Partner and Big Data & Insight Driven Organization Leader of Deloitte Italy

Riccardo Torlone, Professor at the Roma Tre University, underlined how in recent years the University is listening with great attention to the business world and its needsboth in the definition of new courses and new study curricula, and by creating collaborations and meetings to favor the transfer of knowledge between the university and the productive fabric.

Foster ESG goals

Another theme touched upon during the round table is that of sustainability, and more generally of the policies known as ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance). According to Obino, data lifecycle management it also has a significant impact in terms of sustainability.

The explosion of data collected in recent years has in fact partially compensated for the ever lower costs of storage, but it is becoming increasingly important to offer solutions that are also efficient in managing informationavoiding unnecessary duplication.

Another significant theme linked to sustainability is that of artificial intelligence: the costs of training and running AI models they are a little debated issue for now, in the euphoria linked to the possibilities offered by this new technology, but they will become increasingly important as the tools take hold and are used massively.