What best characterizes data silos within an organization?

What best characterizes data silos within an organization?

• A. Data is centralized in a single system for consistency.
• B. Data is mirrored across all departments to prevent duplication.
• C. Data is duplicated across multiple servers to improve performance.
• D. Data is isolated in separate systems, leading to inconsistent information, duplication, and poor decision-making.

Answer: (D)

Data silos happen when data is kept in separate systems across different parts of the organization and isn’t shared or integrated. When information lives in its own vaults, departments end up with inconsistent data, duplicate records or processes, and decision-makers who don’t have a single, complete view of the business. That fragmentation makes reporting slow and unreliable and can lead to conflicting findings.

This is exactly what the described option captures: data being isolated in separate systems, which leads to inconsistent information, duplication, and poor decision-making. The other choices describe approaches that aim to centralize, mirror, or duplicate data for other goals like consistency or performance, which do not characterize data silos themselves.