Warehouses Are for Forklifts. Not Data.

A number of companies offer cloud storage capabilities to farmers for their field data. If a farmer is just looking for a place to warehouse data, this could be a good alternative to storing it on a thumb drive or directly on a PC or tablet. However, if farmers want to actively leverage their data — share it with their local agronomists or let it flow between various tools through application program interfaces (APIs), for example — simply having the ability to store data is not enough.
 
This is the difference between data repositories and data management systems. The former stores data; the latter lets farmers use that data to help them increase their yield and return on investment potential.
 
WinField has entered into an exciting collaboration with Google and Cloud Technology Partners to design the WinField Data Silo™, leveraging the Google Cloud Platform. This will allow WinField Data Silo™ users to flow data across decision ag platforms to help them work with their retail partners to make sound, data-driven agronomic decisions.
 
Plays well with others
The WinField Data Silo™ can serve solely as a data storage entity if that is how a farmer wishes to use it. However, our cloud-based data-management system also gives farmers the ability to do much more: get everything they can out of their data and use it in conjunction with other tools, making that data work even harder. This is possible because the WinField Data Silo™ uses a universal language so it can communicate effectively with other tools and platforms.
 
Additionally, users of the WinField Data Silo™ can set parameters on whom they want to share data with, and it will be shared automatically with only those people. Many other companies require users to physically take action if they want to share data.
 
WinField has alliances with several open-source data organizations, including the Open Ag Data Alliance (OADA) and AgGateway, to help facilitate data sharing. We are working with OADA to help ensure that farmers own their data and can maintain privacy. And, we are working with AgGateway to create that universal language so ag technology tools can talk to each other. In pursuing both of these objectives, WinField and our ag technology partners are helping farmers get more from their data management systems and their technology investments.