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Data Platform and Engineering Services

Find out more about Data Platforms

Use our data engineering expertise to build your data platform in weeks.

We believe data doesn’t have to be complicated — and building your data platform certainly shouldn’t take forever. Our modular approach means we can deliver a tailored, first rate platform in weeks, not months, giving you high-speed access to insights without breaking the bank. Think of us as your data partner, ready to tackle challenges head-on with the experience that comes from 40+ years of getting it right.

We’ve designed our modular data platforms to be as flexible as you are, which means you’re not tied down to any one setup. Instead, each component works like building blocks, so you get a fully customised platform that grows with you and evolves as your data needs change. We know our way around all the big players — Azure, AWS, GCP — and yes, we have our favorites, but we’ll always recommend the best fit for your business.

So, if you’re ready for a platform that’s agile, scalable, and budget-friendly, we’re here to make it happen.

Want to know more about data platforms and engineering?

Read our guide, ‘What is a data platform?’.

Take Your Data to the Next Level With a Bespoke Platform

Your organisation needs data to grow and thrive. That’s why our enterprise-scale data platforms are based on your strategy and built to boost your pipeline and productivity.

Expert Data Platform Engineering

We bring the expertise and capacity to build out your platform and deliver value through business-focused outputs.

We gain value quickly from lighthouse projects while undertaking longer-term strategic change and building client capability along the way.

 

Max out efficiency and keep costs low, with infrastructure that’s just right

Scale for the future flexibly and accurately – whether it’s in the cloud or on-premises

Make informed decisions about tooling with our honest, solution agnostic advice

Accelerate rapidly and tactically while you put foundational data capabilities in place

How Oakland Built a Data Platform for Blenheim

Meet Our Data Platform and Engineering Experts

Jake

Jake
Abbie

Abbie
Lauren

Lauren
Cat

Cat
Danny

Danny
Iman

Iman
Rehan

Rehan

Since embarking on this data journey, actionable insights have been delivered; together with improved ‘in-year’ forecasting, targeted assurance activity, and process compliance. Improved data quality has helped unlock reporting and facilitate more advanced analytics.

Murray Leach, Network Rail

How Oakland Built a Data Platform for Elvie

FAQs

What is a Data Platform?

A data platform manages your data. It consists of tools for acquisition, storage, organisation, security, accessibility, analysis, and consumption — designed to automate manual data tasks and decisions so you can concentrate on the bigger picture.

Want to learn more? Check out our guide, ‘What is a data platform?’.

What is Data Engineering?

Data Engineering is dedicated to constructing and maintaining the architecture necessary for collecting, storing, and processing data.

Data engineers design scalable data pipelines that transform and transport data into accessible formats for analysts and decision-makers. They ensure data integrity, efficiency, and availability, enabling organisations to leverage their data assets effectively.

Through their expertise, data engineers empower businesses to gain actionable insights and drive strategic decisions based on comprehensive data analysis.

What is a Data Warehouse, Data Lake, and a Data Lakehouse?

A Data Warehouse is a centralised repository designed for query and analysis. It stores structured data optimised for fast retrieval and business intelligence. 

A Data Lake, conversely, is a vast pool that stores big data in its raw format, accommodating structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. 

Data Lakehouse combines features of both, offering the management and structured querying capabilities of a data warehouse with the scale and flexibility of a data lake. It is ideal for businesses seeking robust data processing and analytics in a unified platform.

For further context on the above, please check out our blog, The Pros and Cons of Using Data Lakehouse.

Do You Need a Data Platform?

If your organisation deals with large volumes of data or requires advanced data analytics, a data platform is essential. It simplifies data management, enhances data security, and provides comprehensive tools for turning data into actionable insights.

Whether you’re a small business or a large enterprise, a data platform can drive innovation and efficiency in your operations.

Still unsure if you need a data platform? Our blog shares exactly why you need a data platform for your business.

How Does Oakland Build Bespoke Data Platforms?

At Oakland, we follow a structured approach to building data platforms:

  1. Consultation and Strategy: Understanding your business needs and data goals.
  2. Design and Architecture: Crafting a custom solution that fits your specific requirements.
  3. Implementation and Integration: Seamlessly integrate the new platform with your existing processes and systems.
  4. Training and Support: Ensuring your team is well-equipped to use the platform effectively.

Are you wondering whether you should build a data platform with Oakland or buy one? Our blog shares everything you need to know.

What are the Challenges of Building a Data Platform?

When it comes to building data platforms, you may come across a couple of challenges, including

  • Excessive tech-centric focus 
  • Departmental data silos 
  • Poor quality data
  • Lack of Data Governance 
  • Failing to consider the complexity and cost implications of the legacy data landscape 
  • Creating the case for change 
  • Not prioritising requirements 

Our blog, What Are the Challenges of Building a Data Platform, discusses these challenges in further detail.

Data Platform Case Studies

Check our Platform and Engineering Case Studies, where we share success stories of how our data platforms have driven innovation, improved business decision-making, and more. 

Case Study Creating a data platform for a major UK media organisation

Creating a data platform for a major UK media organisation

Subscriber growing pains The media company had struggled to increase its subscriber base within its digital products group and was losing out on advertising revenue to competing products and formats. This demand for growth and competitive advantage created urgency and an aggressive timeline for the business to develop and deploy new capabilities. Central to the…
Case Study Executing a Data Strategy for Yorkshire Water

Executing a Data Strategy for Yorkshire Water

Yorkshire Water faces similar pressures and demands as many other utilities, and has long realised that data is a core asset in helping them to deliver smarter network and customer operations.

This need to utilise their data assets to help exploit and capitalise their physical assets led them to undertake a complex, multiyear data transformation. This case study explains the vital delivery role provided by The Oakland Group in executing a data strategy across a broad set of areas within the data transformation initiative.
Case Study Business intelligence reporting and intelligent forecasting for Network Rail

Business intelligence reporting and intelligent forecasting for Network Rail

In recent years, Network Rail has been impacted by significant organisational, digital and cultural change.

Growing demands for greater efficiency and effectiveness have resulted in a need for more intelligent reporting and decision analytics, especially within Network Rail’s Regional Capital Delivery teams.

Adopting a devolution strategy required Network Rail to ensure that each region had the business intelligence and intelligent forecasting capabilities necessary to deliver major capital projects that gave outstanding value to the taxpayer whilst meeting stringent government guidelines.
Case Study Yorkshire Water Bio-Waste Modelling

Yorkshire Water Bio-Waste Modelling

A core component of water management is the treatment of wastewater and its by-products, colloquially known as sludge. To do this effectively, the Yorkshire Water wastewater team required a bio-waste water solution that could distil a complex network of sites and production data into a minimum cost treatment schedule, allowing them to plan the sludge management process more efficiently.

Alongside this, the end-users wanted a solution that they could ‘tweak’ and re-run, either to incorporate recent site changes/impacts or plan for potential operational scenarios. And at the same time, Yorkshire Water wanted to achieve an outcome with minimal OPEX expenditure.
Case Study Building a Data and Analytics Platform for Acuity Robotics

Building a Data and Analytics Platform for Acuity Robotics

As experts in remote data capture and robotic infrastructure inspection, the client saw the potential for this method of data collection to gain vital insights into asset conditions while using more advanced analytical techniques.

We were asked to design and build a bespoke, cloud-based data and analytics platform that could collect and collate the data, then serve it securely to customers and data scientists – all while providing data quality assurance.
Case Study Creating a data platform for tech start-up Income Analytics

Creating a data platform for tech start-up Income Analytics

Income Analytics were keen to leverage its twenty years of planning and development expertise

To create an online platform that would enable real estate professionals, investors, owners, and lenders to make better informed data-driven letting, investment, and lending decisions.

The leadership team selected Oakland to build the platform based on our data strategy, cloud engineering, and process transformation expertise.
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