The challenge of internal data management
In addition to powering open data portals, the open source software known as CKAN—the Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network – is playing an increasing role in helping organisations with their internal data management. It is doing this principally through powering what are known as internal data management platforms. The following article will briefly examine this and how your organisation can maximise the benefits of CKAN to meet your internal data management needs.
An internal data management platform efficiently and securely gathers and stores the data assets an organisation has at its disposal in one central on-line location. It then enables these to be catalogued and managed over their life cycle, including sharing them with internal users and external collaborators and agencies, within a highly controlled and secure environment.
Government departments, corporations, universities and large not-for-profits can use internal data management platforms to solve the challenges arising from the expanding mass of data they collect; how to extract knowledge and benefit from this data to help inform business decisions and drive research or more evidence informed policy making, and to share it effectively and securely, internally and externally.
Link Digital has implemented multiple instances of internal data portals worldwide.
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About our partner
Link Digital
System architects of data and knowledge infrastructureFor 25 years, Link Digital has designed and run the information systems that governments, research institutions and international organisations depend on. We build open data portals and internal data hubs, host and support them, and now make them ready for people and AI to ask questions of. Founded in Australia in 2001, we work with clients worldwide, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Pacific, and Latin America.Official CKAN co-stewardCKAN is a leading open source data portal platform, and Link Digital has been part of its community since 2012. Our Executive Director, Steven De Costa, and our engineers are involved across CKAN's governance, community and technical work, and our team includes the project's Core Tech Lead. We help shape the 2.12 and 3.0 roadmaps. For public sector buyers, that means open source with no vendor lock-in, and a partner with a say in the releases and long-term sustainability you will rely on.What we doAsk AI for CKAN. Ask questions in plain language and get verified answers drawn from your own data. It runs in your secure environment, never trains public models, and you control who can query which datasets. We start with an AI-readiness audit.End-to-end CKAN services. Consultancy, migration from legacy systems, hosting, support, extensions and theming, with DCAT and FAIR-aligned metadata.Managed hosting, support and maintenance. CKAN and Drupal on AWS infrastructure we architect and monitor, with security patch assessment, restore-verified backups and version currency. One team, one agreement, one invoice. We can take over portals built by others.Internal data hubs and Secure Data Exchange. Governed sharing across departments, with approval workflows, revocable data sharing agreements and a dashboard showing who is using your data.Custom CKAN and Drupal buildsStart a conversation with Link Digital: Book a consultation or request an AI-readiness audit.
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