By Manish Gupta, Vice President and General Manager, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies India
Data is the foundation of an intelligent business. But data, data consumers and the business expectations of data have changed globally as well as in India. These shifting realities call for a higher level of data maturity and the right technologies to achieve better outcomes and digitally differentiate.
As every organization races to transform, there are five key shifts that are converging in today’s data era:
1. Exponential growth of structured and unstructured data
Fueled by an abundance of smart devices and IoT sensors, worldwide data creation has been soaring for more than a decade. A study from IDC cites that from 2021-2025, new data creation will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23%, resulting in approximately 175 Zettabytes (ZB) of data creation by 2025. Add to that, more data forms – including unstructured and streaming data types like loose files, PDFs, photos, audio and video clips – are growing at an unprecedented rate and organizations are finding it hard to extract value from the data they’re collecting. The same IDC report states that 80% of worldwide data will be unstructured by 2025.
Finding a solution for managing unstructured data has been a challenge. Indian businesses will therefore need powerful scale-out file storage solutions that are easy to scale and use, no matter how much unstructured data your environment must manage.
2. Emerging technologies are sparking a new era of intelligence at scale
Edge computing, 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are transforming how data is being collected, processed and used.. This data can be optimized and used to create new value and drive better user experiences at the edge. There’s a symbiotic relationship between the advanced, connected technologies being deployed to thrive in the digital economy and the wealth of new data waiting to be uncovered. Likewise, there’s a symbiosis between success with edge technologies and data management. By enabling organizations to act on data near the source, edge technology can both improve efficiency and help create new experiences. Coupled with AI, the edge will change how machines share and react to data – and this is where businesses will find the opportunities to create new value.
3. Decentralized data
The adoption of emerging technologies leads to more distributed locations where data originates. As data’s center of gravity rapidly moves toward the edge, data is increasingly being stored, processed and acted on closer to its source. But as more functions take place at the edge, you need to manage data differently and consistently – from the core to across edge and hybrid clouds. That requires changes to your compute, network, storage and application architectures.
4. Rising consumer expectations
Today’s consumers are more empowered than ever and are demanding more data-rich, personalized, real-time experiences. The increasing reliance on AI and ML to make real-time decisions in a distributed environment can strain even the most advanced data management strategies. Most Indian organizations don’t have the IT capabilities to keep up because their data management is fit for an outdated world where insights and outcomes can be delivered in hours or days. To be able to rapidly turn data into insights, organizations must evolve their expectations and data processing capabilities.
5. Data breaches vs. regulatory environment
Cybersecurity threats are more sophisticated, and the number of data breaches are skyrocketing. Consequently, the regulatory environment is evolving, mandating more resilient data security, privacy and governance. India’s cybersecurity strategy, for instance, has been in the works since 2020. It proposes several mitigation measures to combat data breaches, provisions that experts and officials see as being crucial in light of a string of ransomware attacks that may have compromised critical data. In addition to this, customers want to do business with organizations they can trust with their data. These trends underscore the ways data users and consumers have changed, and how organizations are adapting to stay relevant.
With such a tremendous influx of data, it is critical to be business-ready faster, accelerating data movement across the multi cloud landscape – turning insights into actions and driving speedy outcomes. Today we have zettabytes of data at our fingertips every second, but also intelligent compute infrastructure, software and algorithms to rapidly turn that data into meaningful insights. Now more than ever, organizations need to rethink data management if they are to become an intelligent business with a leadership position in the data era.
