The dreaded data silo is a well-founded fear for many companies. Whether it’s from outdated information, duplicate data, or simply human error, the development of data silos in your company’s operations can start as a snowball-sized problem that results in an avalanche of issues down the line.
Beyond limiting the communication process, incomplete and inconsistent data hinders critical strategic decisions and jeopardizes data quality, accuracy, and integrity. Additionally, data silos require added servers and storage devices to maintain, so IT costs go up. Finally, data silos are a glaring data security and privacy risk because the organization doesn’t have complete control over the data, meaning it can’t enforce compliance with data privacy and protection laws.
Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem. More businesses are turning to blockchain to eliminate data silos, resolving associated dysfunction and improving their operations.
How Blockchain Can Help
So, how can organizations save themselves from data silos and the damage they cause? The answer lies in blockchain technology. While data silos centralized information away from the rest of an organization, blockchain takes the exact opposite approach. At its core, blockchain supports secure data exchange through a decentralized and democratic environment. This functionality ensures that blockchain can eliminate silos and spread information securely across the organization’s entire network.
Examples of Blockchain as a Data Silo Solution
Those operating in diverse industries worldwide have recognized the ever-increasing popularity of using blockchain to combat data silos. In the logistics industry, popular shipping company DHL reported on how blockchain has removed the need for intermediaries to verify, record, or coordinate transitions within the supply chain. “By facilitating the move from a centralized to a decentralized distributed system, blockchain effectively liberates data that was previously kept in safeguarded silos,” said DHL.
Data silos build barriers. Blockchain is working to break them down.
In the world of healthcare, data silos trap patient data. This lack of transparency results in limited communication between patient-relevant entities; there’s no real-time clinical data, workflow integration, and clinical service tracking. Ron Austring, Chief Scientist of EHR Data, has plans to implement blockchain as a single source for secure and accurate healthcare data. Austring’s work uses blockchain to combine these data silos across the United States. With a single repository to track medical services across all stakeholders, his solution can eliminate common data silo challenges while ensuring patient data privacy and ownership. As Austring explains, the value of blockchain in the healthcare industry is expanding:
“With all these records in one place, it can be accessed from anywhere around the world. As a person moves throughout the world and requires access to their healthcare data or they need a healthcare service performed somewhere else in the world, they’ll have access to their original data. If it’s a prescription, it can be filled at a pharmacy in the United States, Canada or Great Britain while being checked against your drug profile to prevent drug interactions, etc.”
Break Down Your Data Silos and More with SIMBA
Eliminating data silos is just one of blockchain’s many benefits. SIMBA Chain provides blockchain solutions that help empower governments, agencies, and organizations across various industries. Discover how we help our partners build the future with blockchain.