Member Article

Data and Information: the lifeblood of an organisation

In the third installment of his series on data and information, Glenn Morill looks at the future trends and opportunities of data and information within business.

Gartner Group a global research company estimate that worldwide information volume is growing annually at a minimum rate of 59 %.

Data generation is exploding and will continue on an exponential growth for the foreseeable future. There are two trends which have a huge impact on how explosive the growth in data will be in the next few years and beyond. One is ubiquitous computing, the other is the speed and capability of computing.

Ubiquitous (or pervasive) computing is where microprocessors are embedded in everyday objects to conduct a task and communicate information. Ubiquitous computing devices are completely connected and constantly available. Ubiquitous computing is possible due to the convergence of wireless technologies, advanced electronics and the Internet. The products are connected to the Internet and the data they generate is easily available.

Gartner state ‘current trends in smart devices and growing Internet connectivity are creating significant increases in the volume of data available, but the complexity, variety and velocity with which it is delivered combine to amplify the problem substantially beyond the simple issues of volume. Collecting and analysing the data is not enough — it must be presented in a timely fashion so that decisions are made as a direct consequence that has a material impact on the productivity, profitability or efficiency of the organisation.’

EMC Corporation believe that in 2012 30% of businesses will be fed by data from outside of the business and by 2013, 15% of business intelligence deployments will combine collaborative business intelligence and ‘social’ applications, they believe that those who achieve this will be the winners.

EMC go on to say that ‘in 2011, the amount of information created and replicated surpassed 1.8 zettabytes (1.8 trillion gigabytes) – growing by a factor of 9 in just five years. While 75% of the information is generated by individuals, enterprises have some liability for 80% of information in the digital universe at some point in its digital life’.

There are varying views on how microprocessors will develop and evolve however there is so much new development in chip manufacturers to be confident that their processing capability will increase whilst the costs decrease. This continuation of faster processing and falling costs provides a massive opportunity to think differently about how data is processed and analysed in organisations. Data discovery – an ability to look at data in new and insightful ways - and ‘information for everyone’ and ‘on demand’ will become the mantra for progressive organisations.

In summarising this article, the Economist recently stated that the world contains an unimaginably vast amount of digital information which is getting ever vaster ever more rapidly. This makes it possible to do many things that previously could not be done: spot business trends, prevent diseases, combat crime and so on. Managed well, the data can be used to unlock new sources of economic value, provide fresh insights into science and hold governments to account.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Glenn Morrill .