Is data already a "burden"?

 　　Ten years ago, when the term "big data" was just appearing in business magazines, people were in the early days of understanding data, even thinking of it as a "burden" that businesses needed to pay to manage and maintain. In the next decade, the potential of data will be truly unleashed when metrics, measurements and telemetry - from everything from servers, robots and satellites at the edge - come together to form extraordinary business insights and reshape the landscape of people's lives.

　　More than a decade ago, a plethora of science fiction movies such as Blade Runner, Terminator and I, Robot showed us a fantastical future scenario in which

　　On an ordinary morning, you are woken up by a virtual personal assistant who suggests what to wear based on the weather forecast and the day's schedule; then arranges for a self-driving car to drive you out the door.

　　Or maybe you don't need to commute to the office at all, because the long-established telecommuting technology can "conjure up" a workspace out of thin air.

　　On weekends, you browse through new furniture via augmented reality to see if a particular sofa will fit in your living room before you place your order.

　　In the evening, just as you're relaxing on your new couch, a drone delivers a delicious pizza made by a robot.

　　Honestly, are you getting a little tired of hearing about these scenarios and even starting to wonder if they're really coming (like Blade Runner setting the story in 2019 Los Angeles).

　　Do not be discouraged, in fact, from the realization of the future scenarios, just "tomorrow". From personalized shopping and entertainment recommendations to spatially aware robots, new technologies based on AI and algorithms are already giving us the beginnings of future scenarios. All of this is possible thanks to the cloud and the massive amount of data that comes with it.

　　Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies Group, has said.

　　"We're entering the age of data. So I think customers are going to be very surprised at the amount of data they have, and they're going to have to figure out how to use and activate that data and have that data help them improve their business."

　　Understanding the past and present of data

　　To better grasp the future

　　The next decade will see a digital wave sweeping into every corner of the world and a data-driven era that will require many technologies to connect the future. And all the technology is built on the basis of data.

　　We need to understand how data will impact our business and explore more opportunities, but only by understanding the past and present of data can we truly understand and grasp the future.

　　Ten years ago, big data was "trendy"

　　Ten years ago, the term "big data" was just appearing in business magazines, and the popularity of smartphones led to more and more consumers using apps on top of their smartphones. At that time, data was often only of urgent concern to technology companies and experts.

　　Then, companies realized the broader potential of data and built their own data strategies, but this shift was quickly overwhelmed by the flood of data that they were not ready or able to use to make actionable decisions to improve performance.

　　Overall, data has been largely a buzzword over the past decade. Businesses have not always had a positive experience with data, and poor data management has not only resulted in missed business opportunities, but even data breaches that have led to regulatory fines. Many traditional businesses have been put out of business because they were not prepared for the future.

　　

　　Today, data is "oil"

　　Today, data is being generated and used more widely than ever before, and the vast majority of business leaders are aware that effective data management is critical to their success. Yet, despite today's significant changes in the perception of data, many organizations still struggle with the basics of data management. For example, when local IT infrastructure is combined with cloud computing, it often leads to key challenges in data management for organizations.

　　One survey revealed that

　　When asked what data challenges organizations face, more than a quarter cited effective data management as their biggest obstacle, followed by difficulty in having the right technology to use the data. And, many companies have experienced failure in exploring how best to use their data.

　　Fortunately, the difficult exploration and practice has not deterred companies from embracing the value of data. AI-focused startups abound, and leading companies across a wide range of industries have incorporated data-based insights into everyday decisions, from accounting to human resources to customer service and sales, thereby transforming business operations and saving companies time and resources.

　　

　　The next decade will see the real value of data unlocked

　　The growth of data will only continue, not shrink, over the next decade, but the nature of that data will change. It is estimated that by 2025, 30 percent of the world's data will be real-time, twice the 15 percent of 2017. Developments from artificial intelligence to 5G to edge computing will drive this growth.

　　In 2030, 6G networks will enable download speeds of up to 1 terabyte per second. the internet delivered via satellite will play a similar role in the near future to accelerate data movement and reduce latency.

　　Data will continue to change the world of work, transforming many jobs and reshaping our lives as metrics, measurements and telemetry data, which emanate from everything from servers, robots and artificial satellites located at the edge, converge and form extraordinary business insights through artificial intelligence. The potential of data will truly be unleashed.

　　But until then, companies still need to overcome the data management challenges they still face today and refine their data skills for the future.

　　

　　The decade of data

　　Businesses need to prepare for the following

　　To prepare for the future, organizations will need to develop an ambitious data strategy. This means investing time and resources in data management to ensure that information is accessible, accurate, and acted upon. It also means investing in technology to collect, analyze, and use data. To do this, companies need to be prepared to ▼

　　Capturing value from external data

　　Over the next decade, enterprises will accelerate the shift from a focus on managing (collecting, storing and analyzing) internal data to devoting most of their IT resources to managing (collecting, storing and analyzing) external data, much of which is "unstructured" and a significant portion of which comes from new audio and video sources.

　　

　　Dell EaseUS PowerScale combines its scale-out NAS storage and OneFS systems to linearly scale performance and capacity through a single data lake build to meet the massive unstructured data storage and analysis needs of edge computing. It also deduplicates and compresses computation to improve the efficiency of storage resource usage at the edge, in addition to enabling direct big data analysis of the stored data, thereby accelerating data realization.

　　Let data flow freely

　　Over the past few years, the complexity of cloud and inter-cloud has severely slowed down the pace at which enterprises can draw value from their data, because to be valuable, data must flow. Enterprises often have difficulty accessing some of the data they store in the public cloud, and they have difficulty moving it out, not to mention the costs incurred for data retrieval.

　　As a result, enterprises are bound to manage their data through a multi-cloud ecosystem. A multi-cloud architecture means using not only a public cloud, but also potentially a private cloud, with all architectures being harmonized through data management.

　　And, a multi-cloud architecture means that enterprises store some of their data in a public cloud and some in their own private cloud. By pulling back some of the data to the private cloud, enterprises can benefit greatly from both the private cloud and the multi-cloud ecosystem.

　　

　　The Dell Technologies Cloud Platform integrates Dell EaseUS leading infrastructure, VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) cloud platform software, and Dell's best-in-class services to help enterprise users seamlessly span edge, private, and public cloud environments for an easy and consistent cross-cloud experience.

　　Keeping Devices Running in Extreme Environments

　　As more and more data is created in edge environments, more and more enterprises need to move their data management infrastructure to where the data is being generated.

　　Unlike data center environments with stable temperature and humidity, when IT equipment is deployed outside of the data center, it faces a wide variety of climates, such as in remote areas, on ships sailing at sea, or on aircraft. Businesses need rugged IT equipment to help them withstand extreme environments such as in remote areas, on ships at sea, or on airplanes.

　　

　　At 50.8 cm in length, the rugged VxRail D-Series is the smallest VxRail to date, with the simplicity and ease of use and lifecycle management features of the VxRail, designed to withstand remote and harsh environments. It can withstand extreme temperatures, operating shocks of up to 40G, and can operate at altitudes of up to 15,000 feet (4,572 meters above sea level).

　　Looking ahead to the next decade, we need to ensure that we learn from past and present failed data practices so that data can contribute to us. On top of that, the technical architecture that carries the data, remains critical.

*** Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) ***