At Smart Vision Europe we have many years of experience helping our customers successfully get started with applying and getting value from data science, AI and machine learning. We have set up and delivered numerous successful data science programmes across a range of industries as well as in the public sector. Under the collective banner of Smart Vision Europe we have been doing this for over 10 years. Individually most of the Smart Vision team have at least 20 years’ experience. Some of us, considerably more than that!
Consequently we are always on the look out for new technologies and approaches that catalyse the process of getting business and organisational value from applied data science. In common with almost every other area of the economy, applied data science and machine learning has not stood still. We have continued to build our business through the white heat of ever-accelerating technological revolution.
For data science this has meant many changes, not least of which is the incredible volume of data available for analysis, the variety of data that is available and the velocity with which this data can now be collected, accumulated, organised, processed and stored. This explosion of data has created opportunities but it has also created challenges. In particular it requires the development of data science software applications and platforms that can deal with the multitude of data, potential use cases and downstream model deployment and management, now referred to as machine learning operations (ML Ops).
In this blog post I want to focus on how this data revolution has provided opportunities in the software development area and specifically how Smart Vision has responded to this. Our typical approach with our clients has been to recommend an initial project, structured around a methodological project approach called CRISP-DM, to use this initial pilot project to demonstrate the value of data science and unlock second phase investment for a more enterprise-wide, automated approach to data science. This has proven to be a successful approach for Smart Vision Europe and our clients.
Another factor that has altered the technology landscape on the same timeline, of course, is the wide adoption and acceptance of cloud computing. This is due to a combination of factors.
- An explosion in the volume, velocity and variety of available data
- A commensurate expansion in the range of potential, viable use cases for data science
- The adoption and expectation that technology infrastructure should be cloud based
These combined changes led us to conduct a strategic review of the market, our technology partners and the range of data science platforms available. We did this with a specific objective of identifying a platform that met specific criteria and capabilities. We had prepared some very detailed requirements based on our own extensive experience and expertise but our headline criteria were as follows. We were looking for:
- A robustly engineered native cloud platform that could demonstrate scalability
- An environment that offers highly performant and data science focused data preparation capabilities
- A suite of model building interfaces and capabilities that could be fully automated or manual dependent on the user’s level of expertise and preference
- A central place to deploy, monitor, manage, and govern any machine learning model in production, regardless of how it was created or when and where it was deployed.
We spent several months engaging with a range of vendors to find the best fit for us. We wanted to find a partner to collaborate with and to ensure the technical and functional capabilities we knew were required were catered for. When complete, there was only one that ticked all our boxes and that was DataRobot. Consequently I am delighted to announce our new partnership with DataRobot. We’re excited to be bringing DataRobot’s advanced analytical capabilities to our customers. DataRobot’s AI Cloud platform is designed for today’s challenges and opportunities facing organisations. It turns the possibilities of AI into tangible realities within reach of all organisations. Talk to us today about how DataRobot might help you.
