Fast Growth & Big Acquisitions: How to Get Data Integration Right

As your company experiences rapid growth, whether through organic expansion or acquisitions, the challenges extend far beyond the IT concerns. Integrating diverse teams, systems, and data sources can quickly result in silos, integration difficulties, and compliance worries.

Regardless of your industry, the challenge is the same: How do you keep data flowing smoothly while meeting regulatory requirements?

In this blog, discover effective strategies to address these challenges and learn how to position data integration as a key advantage in your organisation’s growth journey.

Data challenges

During periods of rapid growth, businesses typically face several key data challenges:

1. Data Silos & Fragmentation: Acquired companies bring their data systems, which may not integrate easily. Different business units may use separate tools, leading to inefficiencies.
2. Multi-Cloud & On-Prem Complexity: Some companies rely on AWS, others on Azure, Google Cloud, or still have legacy on-prem databases. Ensuring interoperability is difficult.
3. Compliance & Regulatory Variability: Different jurisdictions impose distinct data governance, privacy, and security requirements. The financial sector faces SEC and GDPR concerns, while healthcare deals with HIPAA and local regulations.
4. Speed of Data Integration: Mergers and acquisitions require quick data access for operational and strategic decisions. But traditional integration approaches can take months or years.
5. Scalability & Performance: As data volume surges, businesses need real-time analytics capabilities without massive infrastructure overhauls.

So, how can companies efficiently manage data across various sources while maintaining agility and compliance?

How to Manage Data?

Option 1: Cloud Migration for Unified Infrastructure

Pros:
• Standardised Data Environment: Consolidating everything into a single cloud reduces operational complexity.
• Managed Services & Security: Cloud providers offer built-in security, governance, and compliance tools.
• Simplifies Future Acquisitions: New companies can be integrated into a unified cloud ecosystem.

Cons:
• High Migration Costs & Timeframes: Moving petabytes of data across systems is expensive and slow.
• Vendor Lock-in Risks: Companies become reliant on a single provider’s ecosystem.
• Integration Delays: Each new acquisition requires additional data onboarding and standardisation efforts.

Best for: Companies prioritising a single, unified cloud platform and willing to invest heavily in long-term migration.

Option 2: Data Mesh & Hybrid Approach with Starburst

Pros:
• Immediate Data Access: No need to migrate all data; Starburst enables cross-platform querying.
• Scalability & Multi-Cloud Flexibility: Works across AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-prem environments.
• Better Compliance Management: Local data stays within regulatory boundaries while still being accessible.

Cons:
• Requires Strong Governance: Companies must enforce metadata, security, and access policies.
• Performance Variability: Query speeds depend on the underlying data sources.
• Cultural Shift for IT & Data Teams: Decentralised data ownership requires new operational models.

Real-World Use Cases

• Financial Services: Investment banks and fintech firms handling acquisitions must integrate multiple transactional databases while ensuring compliance with SEC, GDPR, and local regulations. A data mesh approach allows immediate querying across legacy banking systems without regulatory violations.
• Healthcare & Pharma: Merging hospitals and pharmaceutical companies can struggle with patient data integration due to HIPAA and country-specific laws. Starburst’s data mesh enables analytics across disparate EHR systems without data movement.
• Retail & E-commerce: Large retailers acquiring smaller brands must unify customer data for better personalisation while maintaining operational independence for each subsidiary. Data mesh allows seamless customer insights without disrupting existing systems.

Which Approach is Best for High-Growth Companies?

Final Recommendation for Scaling Enterprises

For most companies experiencing rapid growth and acquisitions, a hybrid approach combining selective cloud migration with Starburst’s data mesh is the most effective strategy.

Companies that rely solely on cloud migration risk high costs and slow integrations. Meanwhile, data mesh enables instant access to acquired data without large-scale migrations, reducing onboarding time from months to days.

What’s Your Growth Strategy?

If your organisation is growing quickly, managing acquisitions, or dealing with the challenges of multi-cloud environments, contact us and let’s turn your data into a real advantage as your business grows!