Omer Wilson
Marketing Director, EMEA, Digital Reality
The systematic analysis of corporate data to find and gain a competitive edge is not exactly a new phenomenon.
Business intelligence derived from past, current and incoming data to seek insights and support more informed strategic decisions has been taking place for well over twenty years.
The volume, sources and complexities of dealing with this data, however, has changed dramatically and those changes continue today. Businesses have become increasingly aware of the potential value to be gained from this knowledge and by distributing it across different business lines and job titles. As Forrester recently reminded us, the impact of change on the organisation itself can also not be ignored.
Cloud-enabled connectivity of data within and across businesses – and their partners, supply chain and customers – along with the vast changes that both business and consumer technology have enabled, (smart meters, smart buildings and smart phones to connected manufacturing lines) has also served to uncover and create new problems with traditional tools and approaches.
The same, but more
Working with very large data sets is not new to Digital Realty or our clients, across a range of industry sectors including financial services, retail and e-commerce , healthcare and pharmaceuticals and others. Our experience and theirs show that it is the quality of and access to the data that really matters.
According to Author and Professor Tom Davenport “executives are seeking to build a culture and a platform to exploit all the information they now collect”. In other words, it is the knowledge uncovered by that data that matters to the business, particularly in terms of what can be learned from it and how it can be used to extend reach, improve customer service and ultimately increase revenues.
Add to that the expanding nature and breadth of the day-to-day operations of businesses and we start to get an idea of the impact of these changes on both the technology and business sides of the table. Not only must information be discovered, verified and distributed, it must be quickly, easily and economically stored and accessed.
The same, but different
Enterprise-scale businesses have for a long time collected and processed data about customers, competitors, transactions and trends in order to drive market success. The sheer scale of this data and the wide range of topics it now impacts means that today businesses of all sizes are accessing and benefitting from this kind of data.
Also at issue are a myriad of new concerns ranging from the timely and targeted distribution of knowledge through to issues around the governance, control and retention of the vast amounts of data across an uneven international regulatory playing field (which we will cover further in an upcoming blog entry).
Big Data: a use case for partnerships
Enabling more cost-effective, real-time and consistent access to Data with an accurate delivery of dispersed data environments and the infrastructure required – is our business at Digital Realty.
With the data environment as a key driver, Digital Realty delivers configurable, scalable infrastructures, ready to adapt to the steadily increasing data loads and needs of our clients. This includes a sophisticated stack to ensure availability and fitness for purpose.
Our focus is also on delivering to the twin goals of greater performance and reduced energy consumption, extending and improving our ability to deliver predictive functionality covering everything from storage requirements and IT loads to cooling metrics. In this way we can ensure even more accurate forecasts to help our clients optimise performance and resource utilisation across all flavours of computing models.
Exploiting Big Data is a modern necessity for success. Digital Realty ensures our clients can store, access and deliver this valuable asset across their organisation in the most optimal manner. Allowing them to convert their IT and computing spend into measurable ROI and ensuring they maintain their focus and time on core business operations.
