Data is the driving force behind key strategic decisions for any business. But, businesses have a tough time turning the wealth of data and insights into something actionable and tangible. How can cloud data help?

Through their partnership, Mastercard and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are equipping organizations with the most up-to-date location and spending insights. This enables those organizations to make informed and strategic business decisions.

“Mastercard has a wide reach across geographies that can provide powerful insights for businesses across industries and regions,” said Paul Chang, Principal of Payments at Amazon Web Services (AWS). “Through the Mastercard and AWS Data Exchange partnership, we can collaboratively provide meaningful insights and solutions to businesses across markets and industries to help them tackle their own unique challenges.”

“When we think about our Data & Services business at Mastercard, we focus on helping our customers make smarter decisions that result in better outcomes for everyone,” added Stuart Finkelstein, Executive Vice President at Mastercard Data & Services. “Our collaboration allows us to improve our reach with the simplicity of access and helps us drive scale by getting these powerful tools into the hands of more customers.”

Both companies delved into their partnership and why it’s so important in a recent PaymentsJournal podcast. Finkelstein, Chang, and Marco Salazar, Director of Technology and Infrastructure at Mercator Advisory Group, spoke about two offerings. These are Mastercard SpendingPulse™ and Mastercard Places. They discussed how these are critical solutions for organizations looking to stay ahead of competitors.

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The Benefits of AWS Data Exchange

Through AWS Data Exchange, customers can locate, subscribe, and use third-party data to supplement their own internal data. This enhances their decision-making.

According to Chang, data subscribers expressed the need to locate and use data within the cloud. “They wanted it to be as easy as it is to shop online today so that their team can focus on producing differentiated products and spend time on value-added activities rather than discovering data, maintaining infrastructure, or managing revisions,” he said.

“As a subscriber, you can reduce time to find and source data from months to hours with minimal changes to existing operations,” Chang added. “AWS Data Exchange makes managing data subscriptions easier by consolidating contracts,