Data is growing exponentially. By 2020, it’s believed that the digital universe will expand to 44 zettabytes. This is a staggering number: it will mean there are 40 times more bytes than there are stars in the observable universe. Businesses are going to need to adapt to a new, data-heavy world if they’re going to survive.
Data Continues to Grow by Leaps and Bounds
By 2021, it’s estimated that 320 billion emails will be sent every day. How many emails do you currently have in your inbox unread? Many people have thousands upon thousands of emails cluttering up their inbox. This data explosion is being driven less by critical data and more by data affordability.
A decade ago, data was expensive. Hosting data on a server was expensive. These costs were translated to the customer, encouraging them to keep their data input and output at reasonable rates. Today, data is essentially free.
This has led companies and individuals to keeping tremendously large volumes of data “just in case:” keeping data around on the off chance that it might be necessary and usable at some point in time. It goes beyond emails and into complex files.
And that means that companies may need to change the way they interact with, control and maintain their data.
Companies and Their Relationship With Generated Data
As big data has shown, data can yield incredible results. But today, data is being held in extraordinarily large data sets, with irrelevant data mixed in with relevant data, and with very little way to determine which data is truly useful and usable.
Because of that, companies are finding it difficult to glean useful insights from their data. Companies need to change their relationship with their data, and this requires the adoption of new technology.
Cloud-based platforms have been developed that specialize in the analysis of tremendously large sets of data, including data that may be otherwise irrelevant or unnecessary. These cloud solutions can determine relevancy after being trained on data sets, and they can be used for a number of applications:
- Scoring and qualifying leads based on past behaviors.
- Preventing logistics and shipping bottlenecks based on supply, demand, and historic data
- Identifying new and emerging markets for potential expansion
Machine-learning algorithms are able to synthesize new knowledge from particularly large data sets. When they are able to do so, they can provide companies with extremely competitive, actionable data insights. But it takes resources.
The Rise of Cloud Computing for Data Management
Not only do companies need to store their data somewhere, but they also need to be able to analyze this data using large amounts of resources. This has led to a rise of cloud-computing platforms. Companies are now storing their data on the cloud and using cloud-driven platforms to produce reports and analysis.
This allows a company to have scalable, optimized control over its data without having to invest a significant amount of money in its infrastructure. Without cloud-based solutions, companies would instead need to invest thousands (or even millions) in physical server infrastructure, depending on their scale.
But this also leads to another problem: the problem of connectivity.
Businesses Must Remain Connected to Their Data to Succeed
With the rise of cloud computing comes another problem for businesses to solve: they need to remain constantly connected to their data. Today, businesses are running online point-of-sale systems, customer relationship management suites, logistics and shipping solutions, and enterprise resource planning.
Without reliable, high-speed Internet, businesses aren’t able to connect to and analyze their data. This data becomes useless to the company unless it can reliably access it, and hosting these tremendously large volumes of data locally is not an option.
Instead, companies need to invest more in their high-speed Internet services, creating a reliable infrastructure whereby they can connect to their cloud-based solutions.
The rise of big data has some exceptionally powerful applications, but it also necessitates that companies grow and adapt. Companies are increasingly transitioning to cloud-based solutions which give them the opportunity to leverage superior resources in pursuit of accessing and analyzing their data. However, cloud-based solutions only work if a company has reliable, consistent access to it.
Learn more about high-speed Internet services by contacting PS LIGHTWAVE today.
PS LIGHTWAVE provides high-speed, fiber internet for public and private commercial entities in the Greater Houston and surrounding areas.
Through our high-quality infrastructure, innovative technology and expert, locally based support, we deliver not only the best in connectivity and reliability but in scalability and redundancy. We invite you to learn more about our services, our history and our dedicated team.
