Welcome to a world made of data. It sits in the very fabric of humanity, from mobile devices to gaming to computers and laptops through to tech infrastructure and compute at the edge.

Global data creation is anticipated to exceed 180 zettabytes by 2025, says Statista, which is around 18ZB more than it was in 2020 which was already a gigantic leap from the 6.5ZB recorded in 2012. A leap so great that it landed on business infrastructure and architecture with a heavy thump, making it increasingly important for companies to build digital muscles that can handle this weight effectively, says Sean Raubenheimer, GM at Atvance Intellect.

“When big data first hit the enterprise consciousness, most companies were focused on getting it right and getting it into the business as fast as possible,” he explains. “They didn’t necessarily refine the data; they were primarily concerned with making sure that they had access to it. Now, however, this data is bursting at the seams, putting pressure on customers’ existing landscapes and the business value they are getting from their data. This means that enterprises must focus on quality, insights and precision rather than on volume.”

One of the biggest impacts of data surging into the business like a man-made tsunami is the cost. The more data that the business ingests, the more it pays for infrastructure regardless of whether this is in the cloud or on-premises. Storage, licence fees, analytics, skills – all these touch points come with price tags that few companies can afford. And often for information that doesn’t deliver value. This introduces a new dynamic, one that takes the conversation away from how much data the business can absorb to how the business can refine its processes to ensure it absorbs the right data.

“Another challenge is the lack of skilled individuals to help companies dig through their data and extract those nuggets of information they need,” says Raubenheimer. “Plus, there’s the shift in customer perceptions that’s directly influencing the kind of data that companies can collect, and how they collect it. All these elements are coming together to create the perfect storm and now is the time to address these challenges or companies can potentially lose ground and incur unnecessary costs.”

Solutions

There are solutions that have emerged from within the lakes and oceans of data, offering companies rich resources that help them to remove duplication and unpick information. These solutions are designed to empower companies and give them the tools they need to find value in their data while shedding the excess load that unnecessary data is placing on their systems. These tools are invaluable not only in how they reduce data rot and duplication, but in how they cut the costs that are rising up around data like skyscrapers in New York City.

“The cost that comes with data storage, interpretation, management, insights and analytics, among other things, isn’t going to come down,” says Raubenheimer. “Companies need solutions that ensure they only collect what they need, help reduce their storage, and that give them the requisite expertise to make sense of the data and squeeze out its value. It’s the most sustainable way forward, not by rejecting data but by investing into solutions that make it relevant and accessible.”

One such solution is cloud-based data lakes. These are built in the cloud and allow companies to store data relatively inexpensively and to implement data management architectures that will help them identify and consume only the data that’s valuable. The adoption of these more agile and scalable solutions will likely see a shift in how vendors approach customer data solutions – they will increasingly focus on models that allow customers to remove the noise and bring the valuable data to the surface. Money will not be found in adding more and more storage to the bottom line, but in solutions that listen to what enterprises actually want.

“It’s definitely time to listen to what organisations want and to change the way data is managed and controlled,” says Raubenheimer. “The industry as a whole has to find a new route to data best practice that allows for organisations to consume data more effectively without extensive reliance on expensive infrastructure. The future is about adding value – to the data, to the business, and to the customer.”

Looking ahead at the rising data numbers – both in cost and in volume – organisations need to change the way they look at, and consume, data. If not, data will outgrow budgets and infrastructure while dodging the value bullet and simply making it harder for the business to do just that … business. This is the right time to build data muscles that can flex and adapt and that have the strength to carry the right data while giving the organisation the space it needs to marry the data to the intelligent systems that can refine and define it properly.

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