Do you think there is a network that offers a ‘single version of the truth’ for your business and its trading partners, streamlines and standardizes data across all modules and networks, connects an infinite amount of trading partners and their networks, can be implemented as a private network, really exist? The answer is yes, there exists a network that does everything that’s mentioned above and it is called the Federated Network.
Data scientists could design algorithms on the assumption that the data to be researched would be pooled in a single centralized repository, such as a data warehouse or a data storage center. Yet with the proliferation of data and the emergence of the Internet of Things ( IoT), social media, accessibility, and other emerging data streams, the paradigm switches. The data is transmitted naturally now. For instance, with IoT, data is produced and often preserved closer to sensors or observation points. In certain instances, transferring this data to a single place before it can be processed can be a difficult task.
In certain cases, the data actually can not be transferred to a centralized location due to bandwidth limitations. In other situations, the flow of data is restricted by regulation, risk, and safety concerns, as well as the limitations enforced by security and privacy controls. Federated analytics helps data scientists to derive predictive knowledge from the collective information throughout the distributed databases without the need for all data to travel to a central location, thus reducing the amount of data movements in the exchange of intermediate outcomes.
The majority of information is processed in a federated analytics model close to the place where it is obtained. With the help of analytics, learning takes place at the edge, in the fog/core, and in the cloud or corporate data center, and mutual, interactive learning takes place on a large scale.
Since nations are rapidly flexing their regulations and control the ways of data collection, there have been variations in regulations over regions covering security, confidentiality, and trade all affecting the global supply chain. Some countries also can shut down internet connectivity from and to the outside world. That means companies better have a contingency plan to deal with such a situation if they are working in one of those countries. Penalties for breaching these regulations will amount to up to 4.5 percent of your company’s revenue, so you need to take it very seriously.
Supply chains cover national boundaries, so businesses around boundaries and software suppliers have to ensure they can comply with these diverse and often conflicting regulations. The bottom line is that you can’t share crucial details in a large number of cases. However, when complying with all regulations and consumer specifications, the supply chain network must operate internationally, through a multitude of trading partners, spanning levels, transportation modes, and national borders.
A federated network is one-way organizations can tackle these critical challenges. A traditional mobile network is a clear example of a federated network. When you call a friend, who has an AT&T phone from your T-Mobile phone, the connection exists in the background, and it is clear for the callers. The federated network provides a quasi-real-time shared environment that launches up a host of network-wide data sharing options. It can open, filter, modify, and block data, all based on the situation.
With a federated network, each organization can control their supply and demand channels based on their corporate governance, principles, and priorities, while being able to meet regional laws of all the countries they operate. Data can be shared across any network and even to firewalled and third-party systems.
Federated networks are flexible and scalable and can organize almost any type of product or service, with clients managing more than 5.6 million transactions per day for a federated network. Therefore, it is quite obvious why a federated network outperforms in today’s global supply chain management.
