Analyst firm IDC has outlined the key trends around big data for the coming year in a forthcoming report, ‘IDC Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) Big Data 2014 Top 10 Predictions’.
Organisations implementing their first big data projects in 2014 should keep an eye on these issues:
Prediction 1: Geolocation matched to individuals will see telcos and retailers attempting personalised services, while pushing the boundaries of consumers’ expectations of privacy.
Two different standards are in place for the protection of consumer and citizen privacy, government-defined legal regulations and individual expectations. Legal regulations are extremely limited, particularly in the face of data marketplaces, blurred lines of what people meant to share, and mass accumulators of otherwise disconnected personal data. Telcos, retailers, and to some extent banks, stand to fundamentally change their relationships with customers, based on the kind of insights afforded with joining and enriching various sources of personal data. If done correctly, they can move to a model of personalised and relevant services, and away from more traditional blast marketing of products.
The game changer on the privacy side will be geolocation information. When it comes to geolocation data, the majority of people have no idea how their data is being collected and shared. Mobile phones are currently the biggest source, with network triangulation, GPS, and wifi all providing streaming updates of where a device is, and by association, the owner of that device. As more cases surface of who has access to that data, and how it is being used, there will be an increase in awareness that individual expectations of privacy are being overrun.
Prediction 2: High profile data breaches will drive regulators to draft specific new policy measures
Individuals are generally unaware or misinformed about how much of their behavior data is being collected, and by whom. Recent revelations about government spying are offensive, but only mildly surprising to most. But, discovery that companies have been collecting, buying, enriching, and profiling our very personal lives elicits a stronger response. Organizations that have built highly personalised profiles of individuals do not always treat those enriched views with the level of care needed.
In 2014, IDC anticipates a number of high profile data breaches that will expose how much information has been captured and enriched by some organisations. This will result in damage of brand reputation, a serious effect for an Asian organisation, but more broadly will raise awareness that citizens are not as protected as they assume. This discovery will put pressure on governments and regulators to attempt clearer protection through new policies.
Prediction 6: Infrastructure investments will outpace software and services, with storage for big data growing rapidly by 45 per cent from the previous period
Volumes of data being created are unprecedented in our history. With IDC estimates showing that data will double about every two years, the infrastructure to store and analyse that data will grow rapidly. Particularly in emerging markets, the share of the data will grow from 36 per cent in 2012 to 62 per cent in 2020.
IDC envisions that storage will consistently be one of the fastest growing Big Data and analytics investments in the coming year and beyond, with at least a 45 per cent growth from 2013. The question asked by organisations that will guarantee a continual growth in data captured is simple: “What is the worst that could happen, if I don’t have this data when I need it?”
For more information, visit www.idc.com.
