2018 will be the year to demystify the value of unstructured data: Dell EMC

With the advent of new-age technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), data is coming in from all possible sources and in all possible forms such as pictures, videos, all of which is unstructured.

Data, Technology, Unstructured Data, Dell Emc, Iot, Nikhil Madan
has become a crucial part of the smooth functioning of business operations. (Rep Image)

Data has become a crucial part of the smooth functioning of business operations. It is the new competitive currency, in the age of . Over the years, businesses have started recognising the relevance of data as it is bedrock for key insights for any organisation to stay alive and moving in the dynamic market place. Traditionally, data came from a static source but with the evolution of the technology industry, the data also got transformed from being structured to unstructured form. Now, with the advent of new-age technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), data is coming in from all possible sources and in all possible forms such as pictures, videos, all of which is .

According to Gartner, by 2021, more than 80 percent of data generated by enterprises will be unstructured. So, with more and more generation of such data, the opportunity for businesses to derive profitable outcomes also becomes enormous. Now, the question arises, are Indian organisations well prepared to deal with this data deluge? The answer is ‘No'. Presently, Indian organizations are struggling to deal with information overload, making it difficult for them to manage and unlock insights from this data type.

Hence, today's business need intelligent data solution which not only can store this vast data but also provide real time analysis to deliver better services/ products to the end customers. The solution that perfectly fits the need of the hour is Isilon. As we head towards a new calendar year, there are some technologies that at the brink of mainstream adoption. , IoT, Big Data will see greater adoption in 2018. While the enterprises are readying themselves for this adoption, it is important to see how storage requirements will pan out and what will be some of the storage trends that will gain traction in 2018. Clearly 2018 will be the year to demystify the value of unstructured data:

-Advertisement-

Scale Out File & Object Storage will pave way for scale out storage

In a time when technology is constantly changing and advancing, a company needs to manage as well as analyse its data quickly to stay ahead. With wide adoption of emerging technologies like IoT, Artificial Intelligence () & augmented reality, companies would need to upgrade their legacy data systems to remain functional in this fierce competitive market.

These new-age technologies generate large volumes of unstructured data, which in turn demand autonomous databases which offer high performance capabilities, instant scaling up of compute and power storage etc. Thus, to ensure these new data types are (re)useable in R&D and are consumable by existing and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning for business operations, Data Lake becomes the relevant storage solution.

Integration of cloud with Data Lake

Cloud is transforming the way companies do business. Companies that have moved to the cloud are achieving measurable improvements in time to market, cost, quality and business agility. Going from edge to core to the cloud, organisations will fetch the desired cost of optimization, leading to better allocation of resources for the other businesses activities.

Organizations can also adopt cloud by integrating their Data Lake Infrastructure with Public / Private Cloud, which provides the users the flexibility of both the worlds – Managing Unstructured Data with Scale Out Data Lake, and seamless with Cloud for Cost Optimization.

Manufacturing & healthcare sector to lead in unstructured data generation

Digitalization is powering the future of Indian industries. Given the rapid advancement that the country is going through, Manufacturing and healthcare are the two verticals which are likely to lead the race in the unstructured data generation.

Manufacturing sector

The Indian Manufacturing sector is on the verge of digital transformation, looking to scale up and move up the value chain. To compete the locally and globally, this industry will have to adopt to new-age technologies, that will help them achieve Personalization, a key aspect in today's customer expectation.

Machines, workpieces, means of transport and goods are being equipped with embedded systems, i.e. tiny computers, sensors etc., helping them stay connected with one another, will pave the way for the next jump in manufacturing industry. However, the implication of these connected devices is generation of massive unstructured data. Therefore, to put this massive scrambled data in order & to put it to use, data lake is the perfect storage solution this industry needs to manage their massive volumes of every growing unstructured data

Healthcare sector

Healthcare sector is ever changing. Newer technologies and machines are being developed every other minute to provide better treatment to the patients. With immersion of new-age tech into the system, the data generation has grown immensely. This data is of utmost importance for healthcare organisations, doctors etc., as it contains key information about treatment, diseases, and progress of a patient.

An Isilon (Data Lake) is a powerful architecture with the potential to transform healthcare by providing a singular repository for structured, semi-structured and other formats of data. It enables data scientists and healthcare analysts to mine data that is scattered across multiple departments, laboratories and various other sources. Moreover, it also enables predictive and prescriptive analytics necessary to support healthcare use cases and initiatives, leading to the future of medicine in India which is precision medicine. So, all eyes on these two sectors to make effective use of scale-out storage solution like Isilon.

Isilon will become the nervous system of Digital India projects

 The Smart City is a way for Governments to improve the lifestyle of the city's inhabitants through safer environment and better allocation of city resources. IoT devices, sensors and analytics etc. will play a crucial role in helping the urban environments and their growing population develop in a sustainable manner, all of which will generate humongous amounts of unstructured data.

With development of Digital India projects such as Smart Cities, is already becoming the prime focus in India, the need of a strong ICT foundation has risen. An agile, flexible and cost effective solution will provide faster provisioning of additional on-demand citizen services, making it possible for an urban center to transform into future-proof robust Smart City.

A solution for aggregation, management and analysis of data that is transmitted and received from various new-age technologies is required and this solution is none other than Isilon. Isilon is a scale-out storage solution designed for enterprises that want to store, manage and protect their unstructured data in a data lake with efficiency and massive scalability. It will build the data foundations for smart cities by dealing with the large volumes of unstructured data enabling faster analysis to make informed decision and carrying out intelligent actions.

2018 is the year where storage modernization will be crucial for enterprises which are looking forward to become digitally adept. With Isilon, enterprises can scale, accelerate as well as protect their unstructured data.

The author is General Manager – Data Lake & Scale-out Storage Solutions at Dell EMC. Views are personal.