Technology Blog

Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolutionizes entire industries, enabling enterprises to leverage predictive analytics, automate operations, and enhance customer experiences. Nowhere is AI's impact...

It’s natural for businesses to try to save money by taking on their own system integration (SI). However, when companies try to do it all themselves, on-site, they’re often overwhelmed at how much...

Designing and delivering perfect racks has always been a collaborative effort, but with many datacenters still running on limited staffing—and travel still an unappetizing possibility for many...

In a perfect world, integrating new enterprise infrastructure would be as simple as purchasing preconstructed hardware and plugging it into your datacenter of choice.

The world of cybersecurity is at a crossroads. The rise in cyber threats—from ransomware and phishing schemes to advanced persistent threats—is outpacing traditional defenses. Recent estimates, such...

NIST and CIS are two organizations that publish some of the most comprehensive standards modern businesses use as guidelines for a standardized set of rules as they implement technology into their...

Nonprofits are under increasing pressure to manage complex data ecosystems, often with limited resources. Real-time insights, compliance-driven reporting, and the need for outcome-based funding call...

Seattle, WA—May 12, 2025—Redapt is thrilled to announce Maria Graham's addition as its new Client Director. With over 13 years of leadership in sales, cybersecurity, and enterprise solutions, Maria...

Businesses must learn to leverage the latest technology to maintain a competitive advantage … or let the competition win. 

Data is the lifeblood of modern enterprises. Yet, the sheer volume and complexity of unstructured data many organizations deal with has resulted in chaos—a labyrinth of potential risks and hidden...

Businesses today are navigating an increasingly complex landscape. Rapid technological advancements, mounting cyber threats, and evolving regulations have created a perfect storm of challenges. Even...

Data is the beating heart of every modern enterprise, fueling decision-making, innovation, and growth. However, not all data is created equal, and not all of it is easy to classify, secure, and...

Cybersecurity is more critical than ever. With organizations across the globe becoming increasingly reliant on technology, the threats posed by cyberattacks have evolved to the point where they can...

In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, businesses are again looking to the cloud to drive efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance scalability. But once you've adopted the platform, is...

Few technologies in recent memory have disrupted the business landscape as profoundly as AI (artificial intelligence). AI’s ability to quickly generate new content, analyze data and information, and...

Implementation is the first step of your organization’s new relationship with AI. Like any complex system, AI requires regular maintenance and fine-tuning to ensure it continues to perform at the...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way businesses operate, offering powerful tools to enhance efficiency, improve decision-making, and maintain a competitive edge. For organizations...

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, competitive advantage is increasingly tied to an organization's ability to harness artificial intelligence effectively. Evidenced by Microsoft's State...

In the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI), building a strong framework isn't just about adopting the latest technology—it's about creating a sustainable foundation that aligns...

For professionals in the IT space, understanding what your business needs to effectively implement AI can seem daunting. There’s the complexity of AI and its needs, the necessary security and...

The fusion of artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data revolutionizes how organizations operate and make decisions. Our world is swimming in data, with more data being produced each day than at any...

The journey into artificial intelligence can feel like navigating uncharted waters. With 95% of businesses planning to increase their AI usage in the next two years, choosing the right technology...

In the evolving cyber landscape and the interconnection of information, cybersecurity has become a top priority for many organizations of all sizes. Traditionally, companies hire a Chief Information...

The landscape of modern business is undergoing a profound transformation. As we witness the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), it's no longer a question of whether businesses will adopt AI, but...

Customers expect more than just good service—they demand exceptional experiences at every touchpoint. The 2024 addition of the State of AI Infrastructure report on trends and developments in AI...

Late last year, Broadcom acquired VMware for more than $60 billion, and shortly after, the company announced it would be moving entirely to a subscription model.

CI/CD isn’t just a technical process—it’s a business enabler. Efficient development pipelines allow you to respond quickly to market changes, address customer needs rapidly, and launch new features...

Managing cybersecurity has become more complex than ever. IT professionals, cybersecurity experts, and small business owners often find themselves overwhelmed by the sheer number of tools they must...

Navigating the complexities of cloud adoption, management, and optimization requires more than just access to a cloud platform. It requires a partner who understands your business needs and can...

Why Blind Spots Matter in Cybersecurity

Having a robust security architecture is not just important—it's essential. Despite the sophistication of modern systems, blind spots remain. These...

In the ever-evolving world of cybersecurity, using an arsenal of different tools can seem like the best way to protect your organization. But what if you discovered that having too many security...

Woodinville, WA—August 13, 2024 – Redapt, an end-to-end technology solutions provider that brings clarity to a dynamic technical environment, today announced a partnership with Axonius, the leader in...

Woodinville, WA—July 22, 2024 – Redapt, an industry leader in technology solutions, is thrilled to announce the acquisition of Ember River, a respected cybersecurity advisory firm. This strategic...

Application modernization is a resource-intensive process required for organizations to remain effective. However, modernization projects are often delayed due to factors such as the complexity of...

In development, seemingly minor changes can have a seismic impact.

Take engineering platforms, which traditionally focus heavily on functionality and compliance and are often architected by...

Today’s business moves at a torrid pace. AI is the key to gaining a competitive edge, optimizing operations, and managing complexities. AI's influence spans every corner of a modern organization. AI...

There are approximately 10,978 datacenters worldwide, and nearly half of them are in the United States.

Redapt, a leading provider of enterprise IT services, cyber security, AI, and data center infrastructure solutions, has earmarked $100M to invest in growth and plans several acquisitions in the...

Large language models (LLMs) continue to make inroads with organizations across industries. 

By any measure, the birth of the public cloud was a pivotal moment. 

As companies continue the land rush to apply generative AI into their operations, it’s worth pausing a moment to talk about the risks the technology potentially poses.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is evolving faster than any other technology. 

Injecting AI into daily tasks can boost outcomes - but only if thoughtfully added to help your team rather than simply replacing them. 85 percent of leaders want to automate processes to increase...

46 percent of AI projects never make it to production.

Redapt is thrilled to announce its acquisition of Prime Foray, symbolizing our ambition and commitment to being a full-service technology solutions partner.

WOODINVILLE & BELLEVUE, WA — April 11, 2024

Artificial Intelligence adoption has exploded by 300% percent in the last five years. While basic automation has many advantages, advanced AI promises much more - from coordinating complex global...

The flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness offered by the cloud have made it indispensable for companies across industries. That’s the good news.

When chipmaker Broadcom acquired VMware for a cool $61 billion this past November, one of the first questions from many companies was how the acquisition would change VMware’s pricing.

Parallel processing refers to an operational process divided into parts and executed simultaneously across different compute resources to help optimize performance and decrease load times. This is...

Public cloud storage promises agility, scalability, and endless capacity. However, for many organizations, the reality falls short. Limited performance, capacity constraints, and skyrocketing costs...

As organizations embrace containerization, the significance of efficient cost optimization emerges as a critical component for successful digital transformation. Our upcoming webinar on Container...

Get ready to revolutionize your cloud spending with our Container Cost Optimization offering, powered by the best-in-class combination of AWS solutions and AMD EPYC processors. This game-changing...

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) didn’t happen by accident. In fact, it can be argued there are four key drivers behind the technology’s emergence.

One is the massive increase in the...

A large data center facility caters to your area's growing demands for cloud services and digital applications. However, due to budget constraints and rushed implementation, the data center...

Redapt is thrilled to announce the addition of Jason Myers as its new Chief Revenue Officer. With over 30 years of leadership and sales experience in the technology industry, Jason brings a wealth...

Navigating today's business environment poses unique challenges for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), primarily due to their often limited IT resources. Many SMBs either need a dedicated IT...

The retail industry is standing at the precipice of a transformative revolution, and at the heart of this evolution lies Generative AI—a game-changer that allows retailers to adapt and thrive in the...

Picture a world where your business can anticipate customer needs, provide unique value, and revolutionize how your employees do business. This isn't science fiction; it's the reality of generative...

Are you ready to level up in the gaming industry? According to the 2023 edition of the Global Market Games Report by Newzoo, the gaming industry is estimated to generate a staggering $187.7 billion...

Are you confident that your tech enterprise is completely safe from cyber threats? With the alarming increase in ransomware attacks, even the most powerful companies are susceptible to such dangers....

As GPU technology has rapidly advanced over the years, the demands on cooling solutions have become more complex and challenging. Remember the GTX 780 Ti from 2013? It was a top-tier GPU, consuming...

WOODINVILLE & BELLEVUE, WA — September11, 2023 — Redapt, a leading provider of data cloud solutions, is thrilled to announce its recognition as a Premier Snowflake Services Program partner. This...

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are the secret sauce behind the remarkable speed and efficiency of modern AI applications. In this blog, we take a deep dive into the world of GPU clusters, explore...

When it comes to implementing AI workloads, one of the most crucial decisions you'll face is choosing between on-premises infrastructure and the cloud. This decision can have far-reaching...

Computing workloads are getting bigger fast. And more complex, too. In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, the demand for computing power is surging, driven by artificial intelligence...

Managing AWS resources and optimizing costs has become increasingly challenging for businesses. Keeping up with AWS advisories, identifying potential savings opportunities, and implementing...

Safeguarding against cyber threats has become a paramount concern for businesses across all industries. CrowdStrike, a well-renowned cybersecurity company recognized by esteemed industry authorities...

It’s every CTO’s dream turned worst nightmare come true. 

In today's data-driven world, enterprises deal with vast amounts of data from various sources and formats. Efficiently integrating, processing, and managing this data is critical to achieving...

Data governance is crucial to modern data management. Data governance is the process a company takes to ensure its data isaccurate, available, usable, secure,andmeets compliance standards to ...

The era of AI is booming and is only just starting. Industry analysts are projecting staggering growth numbers fueled by AI workloads. A Forbes article by Tirias Research estimated that AI...

Cloud datacenters enable businesses to deliver fast, reliable, and scalable digital experiences to users worldwide. 

In the ever-evolving landscape of the digital era, the need for reliable datacenter infrastructure deployment solutions has reached unprecedented levels. Industry powerhouses like Microsoft, AWS, and...

In the shadows of bustling datacenters lies a darker reality: the repercussions of inefficiency. 

Accurate, real-time data can differentiate between success and failure. No matter your business's industry or niche, you need access to accurate, real-time data to make informed decisions for today...

The IT landscape has experienced significant transformations in recent years, prompting organizations to reconsider their cloud adoption and management strategies. At Redapt, we specialize in IT...

No one wants to be set up to fail.

The world of DevOps and cloud-native computing is constantly evolving, and as a result, there are now several cloud services available to companies looking to adopt a cloud-based infrastructure....

As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, companies are facing a growing challenge of keeping their applications up-to-date and relevant. This is where app modernization comes into play,...

As the world becomes increasingly conscious of the need to address climate change and promote sustainable practices, the technology sector is no exception. IT solution providers are among the...

In the third quarter of 2022 alone, approximately 15 million data records were exposed worldwide through data breaches.

As xIoT devices continue to proliferate, enterprises across industries are challenged with maintaining proper security.

Seattle, WA - January 6, 2023

Redapt, a global end-to-end technology solutions provider, announced today that it has been named a partner for Amazon Web Service (AWS) Service Delivery designed for...

When it comes to platforms for processing large amounts of data, two of the common choices for enterprises are Azure Synapse and Databricks. Since both are solid options, deciding on which to go with...

While Extended Internet of Things (xIoT) and operational technology (OT) systems are growing in popularity due to their ability to improve efficiency and convenience, they are often left out of...

Over the last two years, corporate infrastructure has changed dramatically, accelerated by a shift to remote work, growth of the cloud, and the continued digitization of business processes. But with...

Does it feel as if protecting your organization’s technologies and data from the attack has become more challenging than ever? 

You know that migrating your data workloads to the cloud brings a whole host of benefits, including improved agility and scalability. But at the end of the day, the idea of moving your data workloads...

Global market research firm IDC estimates that more than half of all new IT infrastructure will be deployed at the edge by 2023. 

A team responsible for deploying mission critical datacenter infrastructure faced missing delivery deadlines due to supply chain delays with their preferred enterprise networking vendor.

When organizations consider taking their SQLs from on premises to the cloud, there are some common red flags that need to be addressed.

Our Partnership with Run:ai

We are excited to announce our new partnership with Run:ai, a company that aims to accelerate AI-driven innovation by providing a foundation for AI infrastructure. RunAI...

Infrastructure isn’t just critical to your business. It can also be a sinkhole when it comes to cost.

The seismic shift to remote work has been challenging for IT teams across industries.

At a high level, edge computing is collecting data and deploying IT infrastructure outside of a datacenter. 

Here’s a sobering fact: Datacenters consume approximately 200 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity. That is nearly 1% of all global electricity consumed.This is a problem. A research firm, Enterprise...

When an enterprise decides to adopt the cloud, it is embarking upon a journey—one that is both technical and cultural.

By now the benefits of adopting the public cloud are well established. Cost savings, flexibility, accelerated development, and deployment cycles—the list goes on and on.

Infrastructure is complex. Bridges, highways, large-scale structures—each takes substantial time to build and even longer to properly maintain.

As the public cloud has matured, providers have been able to utilize years of experience designing and reviewing cloud architectures for scores of companies.At AWS, all this learning has inspired the...

One of the most common challenges organizations face after making the move to the cloud is controlling costs.

Since its arrival on the scene, the public cloud has been dogged by one single question: Is it secure?

As Kubernetes continues to grow in popularity as a means to orchestrating containers, companies across industries are looking for ways to expedite their adoption.

Digital transformation is much more than a buzzy term. 

Recently, Redapt employees Rizwan Patel, Jerry Meisner, and Rohit Garg were awarded Container Black Belts from AWS — among the first individuals to receive the recognition. 

All the major cloud providers have products and services that, while similar, are designed for their specific platforms.

It can be hard to deploy machine learning models efficiently. This is due to a number of challenges data scientists routinely face, including:

According to the report “State of the Cloud 2021,” published by Bessemer Venture Partners, an estimated 80% of all sales interactions will happen through digital channels by the year 2025.

In today’s business environment, simply making smarter decisions is not enough to remain competitive. You need to make smarter decisions faster. That means finding ways to mine large amounts of data...

One of the more common speed bumps for today’s applications is the need to read and write data.No matter how nimble an application has been designed, the process of calling from—and pushing volumes...

In 1913, Henry Ford installed the first moving assembly line at the Highland Park factory in Michigan. The impact was immediate, with the amount of time to assemble a new car going from 12 hours to...

Before we dig into how SUSE Harvester can simplify the management of hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), it’s a good idea to define just what HCI is.

When it comes to security, the less complicated the solution the more likely it is effective.

My name is Ben, and I’m a consultant. 

For nonprofits, doing more with less is not a goal, it’s the key to survival.

In June, Cyble Research Labs conducted a routine threat scan and uncovered more than 900,000 Kubernetes exposures across the internet.

Since the day Kubernetes 1.0 was released in 2015, the container orchestration tool has been rapidly adopted. The major cloud providers in particular have embraced it, each offering their own...

Today’s retail customers have come to expect increasingly quick, convenient, and frictionless digital experiences, a demand which can be met by data-driven solutions at the edge. 

Retail IT teams,...

It can be easy to think of storage infrastructure as static. A simple container for housing data and workloads.

It’s no secret that CloudHealth is invaluable for controlling and optimizing your spend in the cloud. It’s our go-to tool for exactly that reason.

Organizations fully committed to the cloud—that is, moving along the continuum toward being completely serverless—eventually run into the complexities of application modernization.While “lift and...

AIOps is an emerging technology that, as its name suggests, is the practice of applying artificial intelligence (AI) to IT operations. 

It combines the characteristics of AI and machine learning (ML)...

The term “Big Data” has a couple of meanings. 

Achieving a higher level of performance with cloud workloads gives organizations access to increased efficiency, lower costs, and more streamlined operations. Consistent optimization assists in this...

Readers of the site Future, from venture capital firm a16z, may have spotted an article headlined “The Cost of Cloud, a Trillion Dollar Paradox.” In the piece, the authors write:

Governance and cost control are the keys to ensuring your spend in AWS is in line with your expectations.

Migrating to a cloud environment like AWS can introduce unknowns and potential setbacks. But with the right resources, it doesn’t have to.

Migrating to cloud-native apps doesn’t need to be disruptive to your business. In this infographic, we detail the journey through picking your cloud provider and cloud type, as well as the benefits...

Over a quarter of the companies currently using AI claim that it’s directly responsible for 5% or more of their earnings. But the infrastructure needed to support AI and other resource-intensive...

Back when the public cloud was still in its infancy, it was common for organizations to feel trepidation about the security of their data and applications. 

It may seem counterintuitive that investing in the latest hardware can lead to reduced spending, but that’s exactly what can happen through proper optimization of your cloud environments.

...

When the public cloud first arrived on the scene, it wasn’t uncommon for enterprises to be hesitant about making the adoption. 

Speed and agility. These are often the driving forces behind an organization making the move to the cloud.The faster you can bring a new product to market in today’s business, the more likely you are...

Time and time again, I hear the frustration of our executive clients with the performance and speed of analytics and data departments. 

Data and analytics have always played a major role in business, but with more information now available to companies than ever before, how data is being used has shifted dramatically.

Companies today are often unaware of just how vulnerable they are to security risks.

The past couple years have highlighted the need for organizations to put in place processes that enable employees to work in a hybrid work-office environment.

Business intelligence (BI) used to be relatively straightforward. Number of products sold, price points relative to competitors, product returns, and so on.

The two main achievements of any analytical endeavor are solving problems and answering questions. 

As a leader in the public cloud space, Microsoft Azure has a massive amount of information available for both existing clients and organizations that are simply cloud curious. 

Companies that are able to unlock actionable insights from a steady stream of data are more secure and confident when it comes to remaining competitive.

In less than eight years, Kubernetes has become the predominant solution for software teams—and for a good reason. 

Organizations are increasingly adopting a hybrid cloud approach when it comes to data storage and utilization.

Edge computing comes in many flavors.

Many organizations are struggling with the management of IT during this time of supply chain challenges and talent shortages. 

According to a report from the Identity Theft Resource Center, the number of reported breaches in 2021 increased by 68 percent over the previous year. This made it a record year—albeit one not worth...

At Redapt, Cofounders Rick and David Cantu live and breathe technology, but soccer is in their blood. Professional and recreational soccer players and fans can be found throughout the Redapt...

When it comes to platforms for processing large amounts of data, two of the common choices for enterprises are Azure Synapse and Databricks. Since both are solid options, deciding on which to go with...

For many organizations, a critical step in achieving the agility necessary to remain competitive is adopting a hybrid cloud strategy.

Edge computing, the process of bringing compute and storage closer to where it’s needed, has some obvious benefits, including:

When it comes to deploying new infrastructure, making those deployments at the edge is an entirely different beast.

The ever-growing number of connected devices has created a tidal wave of unstructured data.

When it comes to adopting artificial intelligence (AI), it’s not uncommon for enterprises to struggle to determine exactly where to start.

The truth...

Data has always been a critical component of the financial industry.

Now that institutions have access to an unprecedented amount of information—and to tools that rapidly mine that information for...

Not all data is created equal.

Because of this, organizations face the challenge of ensuring the information they surface—and utilize for analytics is worthy of the expense of finding and storing it.

The GA release of Pivotal Container Service (PKS) by Pivotal, VMware, and Google Cloud was an interesting development in the cloud-native ecosystem. We go into more detail on how it changes the game...

From a high level, migrating to the cloud can seem deceptively simple. Take the data and applications you have on premises, then drop them into the cloud platform of your choice. Easy-peasy, right?

...

In this, the season of giving, we wanted to highlight some of the Pacific Northwest organizations we have supported over the past year in the hopes that you’ll join us in donating to their worthy...

In 1986, Tom M. Mitchell published this definition in his ground-breaking book Machine Learning:

There are a number of reasons why organizations refuse to move on from legacy applications. 

Comfort, longstanding reliance, fear of disruption—these are just some of the many reasons that can lead...

DevOps adoption promises to accelerate the process of developing code and features from design to production.

For many organizations, the cost of building out—or expanding—analytics capabilities can outweigh the benefits of the analytics itself.

In short order, artificial intelligence (AI) has dramatically altered companies across industries.

November marks a huge milestone for the Redapt team. It is the start of the team’s 25th year in business, and strong emotions bubble over as Co-Founders Rick and David Cantu reflect on what's been...

While all the major cloud providers offer the same baseline storage and ease of scale, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) has some unique characteristics to entice organizations.

One of those...

In the past few years, the major cloud providers have invested in products intended to promote the hybrid cloud approach. Think Google Anthos, Azure Arc, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS)...

Enterprise technology is a big investment.

Beyond purchasing new hardware and software, you often need to spend a substantial amount of money on training or bringing expertise in-house.

Because of...

The retail experience has changed dramatically, with retailers everywhere rapidly evolving business and IT strategies to meet changing customer needs.

Once your enterprise has migrated to Google Cloud Platform (GCP), the work really begins.

When helping companies deploy their data for strategic advantage, our data and analytics teams routinely face an expanding volume of data coming in while simultaneously managing data going out to a...

Speed is the name of the game these days, especially when it comes to your organization’s ability to mine massive amounts of data for insights. The faster you can receive results from advanced...

In today’s competitive landscape, the ability to leverage data to quickly make informed decisions is critical. 

But that alone is not enough. 

In order to thrive, you also need to put data to work...

What’s the biggest roadblock organizations face when adopting Kubernetes?

The rise in popularity of machine learning (ML) is leading to an influx of newcomers to the technology. 

Many of these newcomers are under the assumption that an ML project is fairly straightforward...

“Science, my boy, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make because they lead little by little to the truth.”

This quote is from Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of...

When an organization decides to adopt the cloud, it’s usually driven by the desire to hit three big goals: efficiency increased innovation, and cost savings.

Traditionally, business intelligence (BI) has focused on areas like supply chains and finance—niche subject areas that impact only a limited area of an organization.

Doing more with less. 

This is a goal for every business and one of the cornerstones of DevOps practices. More development, more deployments, more ways to meet the needs of your customers faster.

When it comes to taking the plunge with machine learning (ML), it’s not uncommon for enterprises to feel skittish about costs.

Beyond the investment in data scientists, the sheer horsepower necessary...

Going multi-cloud can bring a number of benefits. Chief among them is flexibility in running your workloads.

The most routine data science tasks don’t need the sheer horsepower that deep learning models provide.

But as enterprises start using larger data sets, there are a growing number of complex tasks...

In early 2020, when Oxford Economics and NTT DATA surveyed a thousand business leaders about their plans for adopting artificial intelligence (AI), 96% responded they were actively researching AI...

As more and more enterprises shift to DevOps, many of them quickly come to the realization that adopting a more agile approach to application development requires a fundamental change to their...

Enterprise data used to be relatively easy to govern.

Cost unpredictability is one of the main concerns for any organization moving to a cloud provider like Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

Unlike capital investments for on-premises infrastructure, cloud...

According to a study from Algorithmia, more than 80% of enterprises have increased their artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) budgets over the past year. 

It’s not uncommon for organizations that have migrated to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to encounter sticker shock.

In this post and video, we'll talk about some of the leading options for unstructured data management.

Machine learning (ML) provides you with powerful insights that allow you to derive new value, accomplish your missions, and gain a competitive edge.

Getting ML right, however, can be a challenge. In...

In the new era of Big Data, companies face a growing challenge: unstructured data. Forever expanding piles of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, emails, and other file-based data threaten to...

According to Axios, in 2018 alone, Americans spent an estimated $3.65 trillion on healthcare. For some context, that’s more than the total GDP of Brazil.

With costs continually increasing, healthcare...

Every time your organization brings on a new employee, there are high costs. You have to recruit, go through the interviewing and hiring process, then train and level up any skill gaps. 

This is...

The performance gains and efficiencies of moving to the cloud are clear. What is less clear is the best way to get there. Here are five common stumbling blocks to successful cloud migration. 

This post is a video and transcript featuring Redapt Senior Director and Practice Lead of Solutions Architects Jason Zeng and Director of Supply Chain and Operations Edward Egger.

A joke you've likely heard before: "80 percent of time is spent preparing data. The other 20 percent is spent complaining about preparing the data."