Data that is loved, tends to survive.

In everyday life, we are driven by data. And it isn’t just the role of technical engineers to deliver that information anymore.

Today, you will find that hundreds of industry leaders and organisations worldwide are leaning on the power that data intelligence creates and understanding how to enrich it further to support business value. With data becoming a future driver for increasing visibility and inside intel, it is important for us to understand what data is available and how is it being utilised within organisations. 

DATA – IT IS EVERYWHERE 

Per day, 500 million tweets are sent and posted. Per day, 2.5 quintillion bytes worth of data are generated. 70% of the worlds data is user generated. And it isn’t slowing down. From email to WhatsApp messages, to Facebook, we are consuming tons of data that is continuing to build from wide and varied sources.  

Facebook alone has over 2 billion users logging on every day and there are over 200 million companies using the platform to target and generate business. This means that almost half a percent of all the data we generate daily is just from Facebook. 

With this high uptake and increased demand, this begs the question, where is the data? Where is it sitting? And how are we using that data? 

WHO OWNS THE DATA NOW AND IN THE FUTURE? 

With all this data being created and shared in the here and now, what does this mean for future storage and use?  

Security and privacy play an important role when storing data. Just a few years ago, Apple created a 1.3 million square foot data centre out in Arizona, USA but the contents of what is being stored remains private. As individuals, we put our trust into technology companies like Apple to keep any identification information safe whilst we consume their products. This sparks another question: What protection is in place at these huge data centres and what is happening to the data stored here? 

Forbes found that on average, 70% of individuals polled across the UK did not trust large technology companies to hold large amounts of personal information and many of those weren’t quite sure what information was being stored. The future of our data is becoming a more prominent discussion and there is more concern around the access to it. 

Bringing in guidelines through GDPR and introducing governance and penalties are great building blocks that promote further protection around organisations storing personal information. With billions of sources of data being generated and standards of governance rising, can we start to overcome this trust issue and unlock some of the potential this data brings for future generations? 

FORWARD THINKING WITH DATA INTELLIGENCE: USE CASES 

So how do we move past this nervousness and accelerate the good that can come from utilising data to support business change? We are just beginning this journey and starting to see the benefits of storing and processing lots of data.  

Looking at some clear use cases, this can help us to understand some of the challenges but also some of the opportunities too. Take connected cars. Not driverless cars. Our general, everyday used cars that are now increasingly becoming connected. Vehicle manufacturers are building services into our vehicles today that allow the manufacturer to understand driver behaviour such as meantime and failure between parts. Even to the extent of tyre customisation which assesses your driving style and where you drive, allowing you to subscribe to that personalised approach.  

So, who owns this data? The manufacturers say that they own the data but, the customer owns the data. As a customer, you can opt in to specify how much control you want that manufacturer to have. By ticking yes to remote diagnostics in your vehicle, you are making it clear that you give your consent for that manufacturer to collect your data and use it to support your future driving needs. 

And this is the same across all similar services. For example, you can now drive your Tesla to a location, connect to other Tesla devices in that location to seek for parking ahead of the journey. You are sharing your data with other drivers. And you can opt in or out at any time. Having this control over features like this is helping us to overcome the trust issue we have with data storage and help us to explore further opportunities in today’s modern environment. 

DATA LEGACY & THE NEXT GENERATION 

Legacy is often a terminology that is associated with technical debt and bad connotations, but data legacy is something we are creating for future generations. If we take care of the data and create a credited platform where we can explore opportunities, this will have far reaching implications for the way we work currently.  

We’re creating this data now, so what is our ambition for it? And how do we enrich it? 

Take Project Silica, a joint venture between Microsoft and Southampton University exploring how can you use glass to store more data and information. An example of a basic engineering problem which takes huge amounts of magnetic media and turns it into stored, glass technology rather than leaving it to degrade and go off over time. And this all helps push sustainability too! 

And it is not all about monetisation. Research possibilities across the medical industry and the continual concerns over climate change all heavily rely on the observation and care of data. And that is where is becomes our future. 

What can we do and how can we make a difference? 

EXPLORE FURTHER IN OUR LATEST WEBINAR 

Having spent the past twenty years in the IT and Technology industry, our Director of Applications and Data, Peter Gee, recently shared his own thoughts and insights into the powerful insights data can bring to a business.  

To watch the webinar in full, please click here. You can also explore more Acora content across our YouTube channel too.