Data as a Castle

Christina Voskoglou
Aug 21
4 min read

Transforming sitting ducks into data castles

Typically, when people look at a castle they envision heroic battles, mighty kings and queens, mediaeval feasts, and stories of chivalry and romance. I see data.

No wait, really. Yes, perhaps I do need to get my nose unglued from my laptop screen more often, but hear me out. Data does in many ways resemble a castle.

Your strategic high ground

To begin with, data places your business on a high ground. Much like a castle, it provides a strategic position from which to command your lands and have early warnings of approaching foes. The appropriate data correctly ‘consumed’ lets you:

Gain a commanding view: Create a comprehensive 360° map of your market and business.
Predict, not react: Anticipate market shifts and customer behaviour changes to stay ahead of the curve.
Uncover hidden opportunities: Identify untapped potential and market gaps with data-driven insights.
Make smarter moves, faster: Respond to threats and seize opportunities with optimal and timely decisions.
Streamline for success: Optimise processes and communications to boost productivity, align teams, and reduce costs.

Stirling Castle as seen from the King's Knot

Data vaults in the heart of your kingdom

Deep in the castle’s heart, the vaults safeguard all of the kingdom’s precious treasures. Gems of unimaginable value lie there hidden and waiting. Hopefully, they are also well catalogued, so that they may be retrieved in a heartbeat should the Royals decree it. One can also hope that these riches are not visible to possibly prying eyes, and that only a selected few have access to the vault keys.

Similarly, your data holds valuable insight treasures, waiting to be found if mined correctly. Moreover, if you have catalogued your data optimally, you will be able to unearth all the insights that you need exactly when you need it.

From data vault to business vault: Turn your raw data into a treasure trove of actionable insights that drive success.
Catalogue your riches: Organise and classify your data for easy access. Treat your data like the valuable asset it is.
Fast access, faster insights: Streamline data access and retrieval to unlock the power of your data quickly.

A secure and well-governed fortress

Castles were a real pain to attack and siege. Moats and drawbridges, massive curtain walls and towers, fortified gatehouses, inner walls and towers,... And even if you were a friend rather than a foe and were let in, you would still need to navigate several extra clearance points and adhere to a strict protocol to get an audition with the Royals.

Left: Lancaster Castle, England. Right: Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland

Your data being the valuable asset that it is, it needs to be safeguarded and access tightly controlled. In particular you need to:

Shield your digital fortress: Safeguard your data against threats and breaches, ensuring your business's most valuable asset remains protected.
Navigate the privacy maze: Implement robust protocols to stay compliant with data privacy regulations and maintain stakeholder trust.
Master access control: Establish clear accountability for data management, ensuring proper usage and maintaining data integrity.
Assemble your data guardians: Define clear roles and responsibilities for data owners, stewards, and users, creating a well-oiled data governance machine.

The above are some of the pillars of data governance, and you can not live without them. Just as a well-governed castle withstands sieges, a well-governed data ecosystem thrives amidst digital challenges.

Visual arts at the King’s service: Data tapestries and insight weaving

Royal Palace, Stirling Castle: The Coat of Arms in the Queen’s chamber, and one of the Unicorn tapestries (replica) in the Queen’s Inner Hall

Visualisations were an integral part of castles, and they were not only meant to show off the cultural sophistication and artistic prowess of the kingdom. Imposing coats of arms greeted castle visitors upon their arrival informing them - even if they couldn’t read - of the lineage, power, and allegiances of the royals in residence. Floor-to-ceiling tapestries adorning the Great Hall's walls told the glorious stories of battles won and conquests made.

In the data world, visualisations tell the stories your data has to tell - and they are accessible even to those who can not (or will not) crunch the data themselves. They can tell a comprehensive story about your business at a glance, both to internal stakeholders and to your clients alike. They can clearly paint the business and market history for you, so that you have a better idea of what the future might look like and where to go next.

But to serve their purpose, your visualisations must (among other things) aim for :

Clear message, instant impact: Create visualisations that tell your story in a glance, captivating your audience in 10 seconds or less.
Quality data, trustworthy tales: Build your visualisations on rock-solid data foundations, ensuring every insight is a beacon of truth - and not telling lies with statistics!
Simplicity reigns supreme: Strip away the clutter and let your core message shine through. One visualisation, one powerful idea.
Visual storytellers: Create self-contained narratives that speak volumes without a single word of explanation. Let your data visuals do the talking.

Do you see data too?

I could go on with the castle-data similarities (yes, there’s more!), but hopefully you can see my point already.

Data is your fortress and strategic high ground. It safeguards your business from both internal and external trouble. It allows you to gain a comprehensive view of your market and your business. As such it provides early warnings of approaching competition storms, and helps you identify gaps that you can fill. It contains insight gems that with the right prescriptive (not just predictive) AI modelling can point you to the next best actions both at the high business strategy level, and at the granular per-client personalised level.

Yes, the latest AI on top of good data is what will get you there. Those of us that have been in the data and AI game for 2+ decades now (and finally feel somewhat understood!!), know that 80% of any AI modelling exercise is about ensuring we have the right data, of good quality, and correctly engineered for our purposes.

The question is: Are you building your data castle already, or are you waiting as a sitting duck for your data-driven competitors to surpass you in the AI era?

Are you building your data & AI fortress or are you a sitting duck?