by Angela Guess
Bernard Marr recently wrote in Forbes, “Most companies I interact with already have too much data. With this post, I would like to make the point that people and companies already can’t cope with the data they have today, let alone the data that is around the corner. Most of them believe that information is a valuable commodity, and one worth hoarding: the more we have of it, the more we can learn from it, and make changes that will drive business success. But in the rush to avoid being left behind, I also see that many companies risk becoming data rich but insight poor. They accumulate vast stores of data they have no idea what to do with, and no hope of learning anything useful from. To add to the problem, a lot of data has a lifespan. At some point in time, it becomes no longer relevant, inaccurate or outdated. But often it is held onto anyway in the mistaken belief that some day it might come in useful.”
Marr goes on, “It is important to remember also that collecting and storing data costs money – data requires storage, electricity to power it and, if the information is sensitive (including customer records) attention to be spent on security and data compliance. Of course, the problem becomes even bigger when we take into account the predicted growth in the data companies will produce: (1) Experts are predicting a 4,300 percent increase in annual data production by 2020. (2) On average, companies use only a fraction of the data they collect and store. In short, if a company is already struggling to store and analyze its own data now, it will be drowning in data in the next few years.”
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