In 2014, under the aegis of the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Ban Ki-moon), the Independent Expert Advisory Group (IEAG) was created in order to establish an “agenda” regarding data and how they could contribute to a sustainable development of societies around the world.
This group, which currently has more than 20 specialists from several countries, was the first to talk about what is now called the “Data Revolution”, when it stated that it was “generating an explosion in the volume and production of data as well as a growing demand for data from all parts of society.”
Eight years later, the term has become a commonplace and the explosion has never stopped. For us to have an order of magnitude, it is estimated that the volume of data created and replicated worldwide will be 181 Zettabytes by 2025. (1)
The amount of data generated around the world is increasing exponentially, with the Internet/social networks, the IoT (Internet of Things), teleworking (especially in the last 2 years) or the digital transformation in companies being some of the responsible factors.
So that the magnitude of one (only one) zettabyte is perceptible, we can say that it is approximately the equivalent of 250 billion DVDs.
The number is overwhelming and will require companies to redouble their focus on some tasks: data processing, data quality and their use in order to generate management insights. The lack of information that previously plagued us is no longer the problem, it is its maximization.
As it is said, a revolution always brings some anarchy along.
By 2025, 80% of the world’s data will be unstructured. (2)
These numbers are worrying for all companies that have not yet started to make data a priority. In fact, unstructured data are more difficult to store, access and – most importantly – to analyze in order to extract value from them for management.
Although the term Big Data is still unknown to many entrepreneurs, the truth is that moving values enforce respect.
By 2022, the Big Data market will be worth an estimated 72 billion dollars. (3)
Revenues will be generated mainly by service companies (Data Analytics agencies), by companies that create specific hardware and by companies that develop software to handle the data. In other words, the human and consulting component is and will continue to be essential for companies that want to adopt data analysis solutions in their companies.
Finally, it should be borne in mind that a revolution like this also ends up indirectly promoting infoexclusion. It is not healthy for the business that data literacy is just the privilege of a limited number of specialists.
Only 21% of the workforce feel confident about their data literacy, i.e., the ability to read, understand, question and work with data. (4)
Companies must invest in the democratization of knowledge in order to turn all employees into agents of change and innovation. It’s a win-win game.
Intelligent Algorithms is a company that provides top solutions in Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. We help companies welcome the Data Revolution with confidence and realize the benefits it brings.
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