Inside the Data Growth Explosion (And What it Means for Your Business)

Data growth is easy to ignore when most of it happens behind the scenes. In fact, until you run out of space on a hard drive or cloud platform, it’s not something you would think about every day. But given the rocket-speed of data growth, it’s wise to take note – you can’t ignore the data revolution. And while we all know data is growing at an incredible rate, what forces are causing it?

What’s Causing the Data Explosion?

The basic reason for such growth is that more people have more tools to create and share information than ever before. From a new Word document on your laptop to a photo or video snapped on your phone, we’re loading up hard disks with more info than ever before. Because of this massive data growth, tech companies have developed new technologies to help us manage it all and to aid us as we try to understand trends data can reveal. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes into play.

The Rise of Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics

Consumers aren’t the only ones creating data. Businesses are churning out lots of data as well. The data companies that create and gather can have massive value as business intelligence. Data growth has given way to analytics tools that can help business leaders turn hard numbers into insights that can steer decisions. Enterprises are rapidly adopting these tools, hoping to cash in on the insights they can offer. In fact, Forbes estimates that 70 percent of enterprises will implement AI in the next 12 months. Many of these tools take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies that can derive meaning from data, and even automate various types of processes and decisions. Uses for AI vary from point-and-click analytics (tools that help you understand how users interact with websites or apps), all the way to AI that can serve up targeted information to customers in real time (think of the suggestions for products you see when you shop on major ecommerce sites). The possibilities for AI are boundless, particularly when you consider the role they can have in data analysis, and we’ve only begun to scratch the surface.

Why Should You Care About Data Growth?

For an IT provider, this data growth explosion matters because it will soon matter to your clients if it doesn’t already. If they haven’t started asking questions related to big data and data analytics, there’s a good chance they’ll start soon enough. By learning and understanding the latest trends in everything from business and data analytics to AI and machine learning, you can stand out among competitors who may not have developed services to meet the needs of customers. As the data deluge continues, here are a few things you might consider having available to your clients.

• Data Storage. The most obvious way for you to cash in on data growth is helping your customers store and manage all the data they’re creating. With solutions that offer things like object-based, infinite scale-out storage, you have a simple way to give customers more storage space the moment they need it.
• Data Backup. We know how important backups are, but as data grows, it’s important to be able to separate useful data from less useful data. Intelligent storage options can make it much easier to give priority to more critical data so backup storage costs don’t get out of control.
• Analytics as a Service. Many managed service providers are diving into the data game by providing data analytics apps and services to their customers. Right now, only a handful of IT providers are offering such services. Getting some of these services ready for customers can give you a competitive shot in the arm while you also add value for your customers.

Conclusion

While at some point the data explosion may begin to slow, it’s a fact that both businesses and consumers will continue to create new information every second of every day. This represents opportunity to anyone in the tech industry poised to offer the tools businesses need to create, store, manage, and analyze the masses of data they have at their fingertips.