From storage to strategy: The role of data services in product management excellence

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At one time, the role of data services seemed to be primarily relegated to cloud storage — essentially, giving businesses a way to create a digital backup of their files and information. While that certainly plays a role in what data services can offer to businesses, it sells short just how powerful a role data services can play in product management strategy as a whole.

We live in a time when the amount of data produced by businesses and others has grown exponentially, with global data creation projected to reach 181 zettabytes in 2025 (compared to “just” 64.2 zettabytes in 2020). With so much data, data services are more vital than ever.

I recently had the chance to speak with Parul Sharma, director of product management and operations at NetApp about the importance of data services, which influences the entire product lifecycle. As Sharma explains, data in product management helps brands answer who they are building for, why they are building and how efficiently they are building so they can understand their customers before building a product, as well as their response after the launch.

An increasingly complex environment

“As our creation of data has grown, so has its complexity,” Sharma explains. “The data that businesses produce have more requirements, are coming from more locations and cover a broader range of information than ever before. At the same time, businesses face more cyber threats than in the past, as others want to use that data for harmful purposes. The sheer complexity of today’s data environment is the foundational reason why data services are so important.”

Without help, that complexity can have serious consequences for businesses. For example, a report from ZDnet reveals that workers waste as much as 44% of their weekly time due to data related struggles, such as too much time spent on data preparation and searches, complicated analytic tools, lack of data clarity and poor collaboration.

Rather than being useful, in such cases, complicated data can create more busy work that keeps businesses from being as effective as they should be.

Driving growth and innovation

In reality, data product management should help businesses drive growth and innovation by offering crucial insights into core activities.

“Sound data management can help define product strategy, roadmap development, provide better oversight to product development, improve cross-functional collaboration and performance monitoring, and drive the effective use of technology throughout the organization,” Sharma says.

Sharma, who brings over 16 years of experience in spearheading multi-national teams in starting new businesses and driving enterprise-wide business process transformation initiatives, explains that a lot is asked of data product managers.

 “Data product managers need to be exceptional at connecting the dots and understanding how customer preferences and problems can vary between industries. However, product managers often become overwhelmed by requests, concerns and even objections from other stakeholders who are less comfortable with technology and data. Data services helps by making it easier to map, analyze, distribute and make other uses of your data to turn insights into action.” 

Essentially, by reducing busywork and making it easier for product managers to collaborate and share insights with others, data services can unlock the full growth potential of an organization.

A solid, unified and optimized data infrastructure

To Sharma, ensuring that product management can drive growth and innovation largely depends on data service’s capabilities to provide a unified and well-optimized data infrastructure. 

“A truly unified data storage environment can provide a seamless operating system for any type of data or application — including unstructured data,” she explains. “This allows you to more effectively tier and distribute data as needed for both cloud and on-premises storage, while at the same time making you more capable of analyzing data to address issues like compliance and cost efficiency. A single, user-friendly interface streamlines the work of the entire team for better collaboration and scalability.”

Sharma believes that these optimization efforts can also help organizations reduce IT spend through more efficient use of data resources. Data services that unify and improve the existing infrastructure create an environment where less time is spent on “product management” and more resources can be focused on securing and utilizing that data. 

Improving organizational resiliency

Another important role of data services comes through improved organizational resilience — especially in regards to cyber threats. It’s estimated that 68% of businesses in the U.S. experienced a cyber attack in 2023, with 2024 cybercrime losses projected to reach $452 billion. As such, data protection has become a core area of importance in the data services world.

“Organizations that have efficient backup and restoration systems in place for their data are far better prepared to recover from a disaster and resume normal operations,” Sharma notes. “The ability to replicate data between systems with speed and efficiency allows users to safeguard critical information. At the same time, AI-powered ransomware detection is poised to provide even greater protection against such threats. The right tools reduce the risk of a breach while also making it easier to recover.”

Of course, these resiliency solutions don’t just apply to cyber attacks. They can be equally applicable after a natural disaster, equipment failure or other circumstances that could result in lost or corrupted data.

Forward facing

As Sharma notes, strategic use of data services will prove key for many businesses moving forward. “Product management excellence ultimately depends on our ability to optimize how we use increasingly complex data to drive growth and innovation. The organizations that prioritize data services as a core part of their technology strategy will be the best positioned to turn data into meaningful results.”

With more data being produced and used by businesses than ever before, the ability to achieve true excellence in this area will be crucial to internal optimizations, improved customer outcomes and other key goals.