Certain technological breakthroughs from recent years will continue to drive business transformation during 2012. Indicative examples are cloud computing - now entering a more mature phase - the proliferation of broadband, the extensive use of smart devices gathering real-time data from ‘the field’, and the evolution of Human-Computer interaction involving new and innovative means and devices, such as mobile phones and TV sets. When brought together creatively, these innovations provide new applications that empower users in various domains and contribute to a more connected, digital world.
One could consider these technologies as enablers for a leap forwards. They offer an opportunity to gather, transmit, store and manipulate vast amounts of heterogeneous data in a way that was previously unthinkable. But it is the utilization and efficient handling of these data that can give business insight, create substantial value and refuel technological advancements in a different context. Based on enabling technologies, the efficient use of data can make our world smarter, leverage knowledge and offer completely new opportunities in almost every individual economic sector.
Nowadays, digital data is everywhere. Every single company is able to produce and store enormous quantities of information that exceed in size even the biggest traditional libraries. For instance, the healthcare industry and financial institutions are among the heaviest producers of digital data. Moreover, individuals are creating user-generated content at ever-increasing rates; it is worth mentioning that 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, while over 35 billion photos are added to Facebook each year. On the other hand, digital sensors, smart appliances and other ‘end’ devices gather data ‘from the field’ ceaselessly; manufacturing (e.g. production & supply chain) and utilities (e.g. smart metering) are indicative examples. Last but not least, public administrations and agencies are sitting on an unexploited wealth of digital information created every day through their transactions with citizens, as well as internal operations.
Despite the vast amount of data being produced, human beings have definite limitations regarding their ability to combine them to create meaningful information and consequently turn diverse information into knowledge. Thus, being able to automate gathering, storing, aggregation and combination of huge quantities of data and then use the results to perform deep analysis will become a key differentiator in everyday business. It can substantially improve decision-making, minimize risks, and unearth valuable insights that would otherwise remain hidden.
In order to reach this target, a whole new world of technologies and practices is already present and continuously evolving; new forms of file systems and non-relational databases, distributed storage and computing techniques, in-memory computing, content aggregators and mush-ups, business intelligence and analytic tools, as well as deep vertical business knowledge are joining forces to ‘tame the beast’ of large-scale data. It is hugely fascinating how many technological breakthroughs and discrete elements are needed as prerequisites, in order to effectively exploit all these data and produce meaningful results.
But the results are compensation for the effort. Consider for example the new paradigm of computational biology: analyzing and understanding the patterns of the human genome is expected to soon offer new inroads to predicting diseases and providing a personalized, preventive and well focused treatment to every individual. Another impressive example comes form the energy domain: real time sensing and analysis of various parameters from the electricity network, as well as data related to weather conditions and consumer demand, will allow the seamless integration of Renewable Energy Sources into micro-grids. On the other hand, in the retail sector, segmentation and analysis of customer data from various transactions could provide valuable insight into price optimization, cross selling, location-based marketing etc.
Regarding Europe, apart from any private initiative, the largest and perhaps the most valuable source of information is the public sector itself. Public data are produced at all levels of government national and at EU level. Examples are geographical information, statistics, weather data, data from publicly funded research projects, and digitized books from libraries.
This information has a significant, currently untapped potential for re-use in new products and services, and for efficiency gains in administrations. In fact, Europe’s public administrations are sitting on a goldmine of unrealized economic potential: the large volumes of information collected by numerous public authorities and services. According to the Commission, opening up this resource could amount to an economic gain of €40 billion per year.
In order to exploit this potential, the Commission has launched an open data strategy for Europe. The strategy is three-fold: firstly the Commission will lead by example, opening its vaults of information to the public cost-free through a new data portal. Secondly, a level playing field for open data across the EU will be established. Finally, these new measures are backed by the €100 million which will be granted in 2011-2013 to fund research into improved data-handling technologies. Through these initiatives, it is expected that the public sector will gradually undertake the role of content provider, while more and more private initiatives will emerge to carry out the role of service provider based on public content. When this comes true, it will have a remarkable impact on the overall e-Government landscape, transforming business models and the ‘value chain’ of G2B and G2C services.
I strongly believe that unveiling the prospects of large-scale data utilization represents a major challenge for the years to come. It constitutes an untapped potential for the European economy, which can provide substantial competitive advantage both for its businesses and for its administrations. It is quite impressive that - even today - digital data are not yet widely recognized as a key competitive asset by many business leaders and policy makers. As technology evolves and content is generated at even higher rates, more and more enterprises will understand the assets that they hold, or which they could have access to, and will adapt their strategy respectively.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Athanasios Kotsis
Quelle/Source: New Europe, 02.01.2012
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