Large data--how to get value from information explosion

The writer is the global vice president of Hewlett-Packard Company and general manager of China Hewlett-Packard Corporation

As of 2013, the digital data volume is expected to reach four-kilobyte (zettabytes), more than 50% higher than 2012, is nearly four times times 2010 [1]. Therefore, an effective enterprise-level information optimization strategy becomes ever more important. Since 90% of the digital content expected to be generated in 2015 will be unstructured data [2], such as messages and tweets, and video and audio, the situation will become increasingly complex.

No matter which industry you are in, the challenges surrounding big data and managing this information are everywhere.

· The financial services industry must meet customer expectations for digital banking services and address risks and regulatory needs;

· In the areas of medical and life sciences, patient privacy and drug development issues make compliance a key investment driver;

· Understanding the needs of customers to improve service and participation mode is indispensable in tourism and transportation industry;

· In the area of government and public utilities, the government is improving its intelligence and security capabilities with a view to better protecting the public;

· Real-time data visualization, aggregation and interpretation are critical to the energy industry.

Unprepared companies may be overwhelmed by the number, type and speed of existing raw information. If an enterprise lacks the ability to manage and handle multiple sources of information, it will lead to a variety of issues that involve the entire enterprise dimension:

· Competitors with more advanced information systems will be able to make good use of data and compete for customers;

· Although there are more and more sources, it will be increasingly difficult to realize the value of data;

· Waste a lot of time filtering out huge amounts of irrelevant data that can't support decisions or push them through;

· The cost of the lack of flexibility and separation of information infrastructure will gradually increase.

Governments and businesses urgently need to gain insights from irrelevant data and to be able to use them effectively. Companies that are strategically responsive and extract real value from massive amounts of information will be able to gain a key market lead.

The power to play the message

According to Coleman Parkes Research [3], 62% of private enterprises in Asia Pacific and Japan believe that effective information optimization strategies can help them gain competitive advantage.

But less than half of enterprises have adopted the right solution and gained insights from large data, while only 15% of enterprises now incorporate unstructured data into their enterprise insights, processes, and strategies.

The ultimate goal of an enterprise should be to make full use of 100% of information to drive faster, smarter business decisions. Enterprises should be able to measure the value of information strategy in terms of new revenue, cost savings and accelerated listing.

To succeed in a new era of information-driven, companies need information optimization strategies and solutions that understand abstract concepts.

The goal of the enterprise is to realize the interconnection intelligence through the information management and analysis system covering all data forms. This means that they must:

· Build an agile intelligent environment with the right infrastructure to capture and store massive amounts of information, perform real-time analysis and quickly adapt to changing priorities;

· Integrate information and intelligence strategies in enterprise ecosystem to obtain a complete view of business data;

· Realize the full value of information assets by translating insights and ideas into action.

Achieving a better customer experience is the primary goal of all information optimization strategies.

Improve the way companies search and analyze information to better understand customer behavior and requirements to support fast, informed business decisions. This will help achieve a better customer experience and a higher degree of loyalty.

Information insights should integrate all customer information, regardless of how the customer interacts with the enterprise, including through social media, microblogging, mobile apps, and other means such as by telephone. Information must be collected within different business boundaries while addressing potential privacy and security issues.

Advanced information technology helps companies enhance their ability to identify customer preferences, problems, and trends. This information can be used to better interact with clients while providing insights beyond competitors.

These new information can play a role in application development and the migration of applications to the cloud, which allows customers to get new services easily and quickly.

Optimize Business performance

Not only does the enterprise need to deal with massive structured and unstructured data, it is also distributed across a number of potentially unrelated business areas, as well as in many different applications. Another key capability of modern data centers is the ability to handle large amounts of irrelevant information to gain insight into business performance.

By consolidating, migrating, and summarizing data storage, organizations can improve information access and reduce it operational costs. This provides a simple, flexible, fast, low-cost, and cost-effective information infrastructure that is scalable, modular, and reliable.

Replacing complex orphaned databases with intelligent information infrastructures enables organizations to capture, store, and provide information when they need it, regardless of the application or scale of the applications.

Making full use of 100% of the relevant functions and operational data can help customers improve operational performance and operating profits, and automate information lifecycle management.

The goal of information optimization is to build a unified infrastructure that serves the entire enterprise, from data security and compliance to analysis and agility. The resulting ability to analyze information quickly and easily can help companies gain a more reliable view and make accurate and effective decisions.

Managing Security and risk

With the ability to manage 100% of large data end-to-end as a new goal, companies should look at better regulatory and security measures to address the growing risks and complexities.

These include the inability to make full use of all available data for the financial and legal risks associated with timely and correct decision-making, as well as to obtain data and ensure that it is up-to-date and correct.

An intelligent information ecosystem manages the data in a secure environment to manage day-to-day operations and reduce risk. It also leverages insights to guide business investment and pricing, and to take full advantage of new business opportunities.

Convert data to assets

Companies that are unable to deploy and act quickly are at risk of being inundated with large numbers of data.

On the other hand, the rewards for companies that can implement a comprehensive enterprise-level information optimization strategy are enormous.

This strategy helps to narrow the gap between potential and ultimately realized operational results. In short, it can be divided into three main elements:

· An information infrastructure that captures, stores, replicates, and expands data;

· Manage, protect, administer and make full use of information management of data;

· An Information insight tool that searches, analyzes, understands, and takes action on data.

Companies that gain insights and value from their own data assets will begin to reap the rewards of their substantial information.

[1] IDC 2013: third-party platform competition

[2] IDC 2012 FORECAST: Competition facing 2020

[3] The Coleman Parkes Research survey was conducted in October 2012 on behalf of Hewlett-Packard, including 550 interviews with senior global business executives and technical executives.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)