By the end of 2021, it was estimated that there were already 46 billion (yes, billion) connected devices, with an estimated additional 31 billion devices to be added by the end of the year2.
That’s a lot of connected devices. But what exactly are those connected devices, and what does that have to do with data or your business?
Great questions.
A Quick Explanation of IoT
The IoT refers to any device, sensor, or physical object that’s connected to the internet and exchanges data with other devices or systems via the ‘Net. And the reality is that almost any device connected to the internet today creates and/or exchanges data online. Think about email, pictures, and text messages on your phone, digital data over corporate networks, or sensor data from a remote electrical generation plant. They all create and exchange data online.
As that data is being created, it presents businesses with numerous ways to benefit from it – that is, if they know how to take advantage of it. The problem is that most businesses may not know the hidden value their data contains, so they don’t do a lot to take advantage of that data as a resource.
According to a 2015 report3 by McKinsey, by 2025 the potential global economic impact of IoT could be up to $11.1 trillion (yes, trillion, with a T)! Can your business afford to miss that opportunity?
That’s why recognizing the fact that data is the new currency is important to your business. But that’s also the challenge: understanding how to use the data in the best way. Of course, the best way for one company will be different than the best way for another – there’s not one right way.
Data – the Lifeblood of Industry
The commercialization of almost everything online has driven the increase in the relevance of data as currency. If you look back, in 2009 the top tech companies dealt primarily in products and services. But in 2019, a short ten years later, the top tech companies all dealt with data in one way or another – Amazon, Facebook, and Google among them.4
Data is the lifeblood of industry. Your systems, machines, devices, and equipment create it constantly. They also use it constantly. Data provides businesses with insight into areas such as research, product development, and customer behavior. It gives you the information you need to improve existing products. It drives innovation and the development of new products. It provides the data required to manage and improve customer interactions.
Because technology has made data availability almost ubiquitous, it would stand to reason that most businesses are taking advantage of that information to stay at the forefront of their industry. Especially when you consider the increase in computing power available today, coupled with new technologies such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI).
However, that’s not the case. Most businesses still don’t receive the full benefit from their data that they should. This is due to a variety of reasons, including too much data, poor data quality, no way to consolidate various data sources into a cohesive whole, and the lack of data analytics tools. You could say that businesses today are often data rich, but information and knowledge poor.
If that’s true, then what is your business doing to change that paradigm to optimize your data and take advantage of it? Here’s a few points to help you move forward.
Data as Currency Considerations
Once businesses decide to take the steps necessary to begin utilizing their data, several key areas must be reviewed, and questions asked:
- Data Management:
Do you have the right technology and systems to pull data together?
Is the data connected to and accessible via the same or multiple networks?
Do you have the right tools to access, organize, cleanse, transfer, and manage the data?
- Data Format:
Is the data structured or unstructured?
Is the data cleaned on a regular basis?
Do you have incorrect data, data inconsistencies, redundant information, and duplicate data?
Does the data or the output need to be in a certain format?
- Data Location:
Where is the data located? (In one location or spread out across multiple locations? On one continent or spread across the globe?)
- Data Security:
How is the data accessed?
How are users authenticated?
How is data passed back and forth?
- Data Analysis:
Do you have the right talent to perform data analysis?
Do you have the right analytical tools to analyze the data with?
- Data Usage:
Have you defined how the data will be categorized?
How will you use the data and information gained?
What is the end goal?
These categories provide your business with the basic guidelines needed to become a data-driven enterprise. However, this type of change doesn’t come easily –a cultural component must also be considered.
Every business has its own corporate culture, so incorporating the data as the new currency belief into that culture takes time. Education is a critical component of that change, as is the understanding that this will not be a one and done change. Communicating the need for this type of change must start at the top and must be supported by all departments within the company to help all employees understand the value of the data. In addition, the necessary investments must be committed to and made in people, tools, and technology to support the change.
By taking these steps, your business and employees will truly understand that data is the new currency. You’ll be able to transition to a data-first focus and be able to take advantage of the wealth of data available to you.
HPE Ezmeral
To help your business make the transition to this type of data-first focus, HPE Ezmeral has developed a fully integrated portfolio of products. HPE Ezmeral is a purpose-built, hybrid cloud platform for data science and analytics workloads. The portfolio includes an integrated data fabric solution to consolidate, access, and manage your data regardless of location, a machine learning operations solution to easily develop and deploy ML models, and a unified analytics solution that provides a unified, modern analytics and data lakehouse platform.
For more information on HPE Ezmeral and how it can help your business, visit hpe.com/ezmeral or contact your local sales rep.
(1) CIO.com, “Is data the currency of the future?”, published September 13, 2017, https://www.cio.com/article/230679/is-data-the-currency-of-the-future.html
(2) TechJury, “How Many IoT Devices Are There in 2022?”, published 6/2/2022, https://techjury.net/blog/how-many-iot-devices-are-there/
(3) McKinsey Global Institute, “The Internet of Things: Mapping the value beyond the hype,”, published June 1, 2015, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-internet-of-things-the-value-of-digitizing-the-physical-world
(4) Yahoo!Finance, “The 10 Most Valuable Tech Companies in the World,” published August 16, 2019, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-most-valuable-tech-companies-193201023.html
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RichardHatheway
Richard Hatheway is a technology industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in multiple industries, including computers, oil and gas, energy, smart grid, cyber security, networking and telecommunications. At Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Richard focuses on GTM activities for HPE Ezmeral Software.