To coincide with the celebration of Singularity Tech Day, Plain Concepts will present Sidra Data Platform on the 28th of November.

Aimed at simplifying the management of corporate data, Sidra Data Platform is a Data Lake solution based 100% on Azure which allows companies to protect and make the most of all their relevant information, quickly and efficiently. In fact, the initial installation of Sidra can be available in less than 24 hours. Sidra Data Platform encourages organizations to start using and applying Machine Learning in their processes, helping to exploit information optimally, thus improving decision making.

Implanted in over a dozen clients such as Slater & Gordon, GroupM and Trasmediterranea, Sidra Data Platform is aimed at large and medium enterprises which are addressing processes of digital transformation and the modernization of their data and analytical platforms, thanks to its ability to manage large volumes of data, cataloguing and governing of them, attributing cost to cost centres per use case and supporting GDPR requirements.

With these customers, «we have been transforming and improving the product. By way of example, Sidra was initially based on Hadoop clusters, which we have modified to Databricks thanks to feedback from our early adopters. These pilots, and our current customers, are undoubtedly one of the main values of the platform; our architecture and approach are what they are thanks to these experiences over the last few years,» explains Pablo Doval, Principal Data Architect at Plain Concepts.

«For years, we have been developing Big Data corporate solutions for different multinational companies in verticals as diverse as banking, retail, legal and digital media. These projects provided us with both technical expertise and knowledge of common customer needs and this experience has allowed us to implement a scalable and extensible solution, which is where Sidra began,” says Doval.

Reduced time and costs

The main advantages of the new solution are the reduction of general time and costs, both for the intake of data on the platform and for the development of use cases. «Highlighting the speed at which a company’s data system can be ready.  In most cases, Sidra is deployed on the customer’s infrastructure in fewer than 24 hours, when traditionally it would have taken months of development, which is very surprising when you consider the complexity of the platform,» adds Doval.

In parallel, this new tool provides high flexibility, with usage cases ranging from analytical and reporting applications to a Data Lab experience, Machine Learning models or integration APIs.

It is also important to highlight the «focus on data governance, both from the point of view of cataloguing data on the platform, to the management of the data lineage. And this is visible from the modern web administration interface or through the extensibility APIs«.

Unlike a simple operational database, Sidra has a strategic role within a company because a lot of the data stored in the different partitions of the system is highly sensitive. For that reason, at Plain Concepts, we made the decision that data should always remain in the customer’s cloud infrastructure, rather than a company-managed infrastructure, which simplifies GDPR requirements.

Slater & Gordon

Slater & Gordon, one of the UK’s largest law firms, has relied on Sidra to modernise its data platform in order to handle one of its most complicated cases – the Volkswagen emissions class-action lawsuit.

Thanks to Sidra and its Machine Learning (ML) support, they have been able to analyse an enormous amount of data – both client and documentary – and, using Machine Learning (ML) models and genetic algorithms, automatically identify the best plaintiffs to represent the case before the judge, significantly reducing the manual labour cost of the legal and paralegal team.

In addition, it has been possible to integrate the different case management systems, financial, marketing, etc., in a unified platform to manage the entire process, from communication with the client to the final settlement, all under the strict regulatory standards imposed by the legal world.

Global reach and forecasts

Sidra Data Platform has an international vocation. In fact, the first implementation was deployed to a client in London, and we now have clients in Spain and the United Kingdom and are developing proofs of concept in the Netherlands and Germany.

«The problems that this platform solves are experienced by all industries in all countries, so taking advantage of the projection that Plain Concepts offers thanks to its global presence, is to address the expansion of the product in all possible territories,» says Doval.