The future will not just be a linear
extrapolation or progression of the past. Organizations need to think
logarithmically about the volume of information they'll need to
manage in the next five years. According to EMC, an international data
corporation, the digital universe is doubling in size every two years, and
will multiply tenfold between 2013 and 2020 from 4.4 trillion gigabytes to 44 trillion gigabytes. The amount of
information currently in the digital universe would fill a stack of iPad
Air tablets reaching 2/3 of the way to the moon.
By 2020, there will be 6.6 stacks
this size. Consumers create much of this data, but enterprises are
responsible for it. 2/3 of digital universe data is created or captured by
consumers and workers, yet enterprises have liability or responsibility
for 85% of it. This phenomena of accelerating information has three
elements to it, and they go like this:
1. One,
an organization is a system of information networks. It only operates
effectively when there is clear and predictable information flow within
and between these networks.
2. Two,
50% annual growth in the volume of digital information means that these
networks, and especially the points of connection between them, will
become increasingly unstable. And
3. Three,
without intervention, the resulting information chaos will threaten the
viability of the entire organization.
Exploding volume,
variety, and velocity of information
Unprecedented volume, variety,
and velocity of information are all around us. According to a recent
global survey by conducted by one of Global System Integrators, 70
percent of executives viewed digital initiatives as a seriously important
factor in their company's success in the next five years. However,
only eight percent say they actually have a digital strategy. Think about
security. Over the past ten years, there have been over 300 data
breaches involving the theft of 100,000 or more records, and that's just
for the breaches that have been disclosed publicly.
Gartner analyst Doug Laney has
assembled an impressive list of examples of the volume, variety, and
velocity of information. Here are a few. Walmart deployed semantic search on their website, which
increased their conversion rate from 10 percent to 15 percent, generating
significant new revenue. The supermarket
chain Tesco collected 70 million refrigerator-related data points
coming off its units and fed them into a dedicated data warehouse. Those
data points were analysed to keep better tabs on performance, gauge when
the machines might need servicing, and cut down on energy costs via
proactive maintenance.
Macy's adjusts pricing of its products in near real-time for 73
million items based on demand and based on inventory. That's a huge
amount of data to track and update. You get the idea. All of this
translates into a period of radical growth in information. We are at
an unusual moment in time when all of the major analyst firms, Gartner,
Forester, IDC, McKinsey, and a host of others agree that a revolution is
underway, that there will be unexpected victors and victims in this
revolution, and that information is in the middle of it.
As we shift our frame of
reference to the world ahead, there are four major questions that every organization must ask about
its digital transformation strategy.
1. How
do you manage the risk of growing volumes of information?
2. How
do you transform and automate your information intensive business
processes?
3. How
do you use information to better engage customers and employees?
4. How
do you get any business insight out of all the information you are
gathering?
These four issues, risk, automation, engagement,
and insight, are the key questions that businesses should be asking.
In the next article, we'll
explore the core building blocks of a strategy for riding the crest of
this resolution, instead of getting buried in the foam
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