Articles about Data

Getting value from data is not something that can be done in a (data) snap. The journey is often long and tumultuous. According to a recent survey, 99 percent of companies recognize that data is crucial for success; however, 97 percent face challenges in using data effectively.

The spread of data sources, volume, and too few resources prevent organizations effectively managing the growing demand for trusted data at the speed required by businesses. And that means little data -- if any -- can be relied upon to make critical business decisions. But there are simple key steps that every company can make to help them ensure a sustainable data management practice that will enable them to accelerate time to value.

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Sharing is caring, as the saying goes, but when it comes to business data oversharing is a big problem. A new report from Concentric AI shows the number of overshared files rose 60 percent in 2022 compared to 2021.

Largely this is down to the impact of hybrid remote work, cloud migration and information sprawl across on-premises and cloud data, as well as email and messaging environments on data security.

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It is estimated that by 2025, the annual global data consumption will amount to 181 zettabytes -- over ten times more than in 2015. Does it mean we will make ten times better-informed business decisions? Most likely not, and the reason is simple: according to different sources, 75 percent or more of the data companies collect lurks in the dark.

'Dark data' is the vast amount of information collected by businesses but never analyzed or used. It can be web and app logs, email correspondence, visitor tracking data, the information generated by IoT devices, etc. Nowadays, every business activity is recorded somehow. Most of this data is unstructured and gathered in different formats. This cornucopia of information has to be processed, stored, secured, and maintained. Instead of increasing ROI, it increases noise, hidden costs, and safety issues since companies are legally responsible for all the collected data, even if they don’t use it.

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A new global survey of nearly 10,000 business leaders shows 80 percent say data is crucial to decision making in their organization.

However, the study from Salesforce also shows that a third lack the ability to generate insights from data, only 29 percent are using data to inform their strategy when launching in new markets, and 67 percent are not using data to decide on pricing in line with economic conditions, such as inflation.

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Data science involves analyzing and interpreting large, complex amounts of data and turning it into valuable insight to achieve business goals. Though not exactly a breakthrough field now, it has changed many aspects of how markets conduct business.

In a conversation with Jerry Johnson, founder and president of Marketing Data Science Associates and director of Cascade Strategies, we talk about data science, its applications in marketing, and its future with the emergence of AI.

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Rolling out digital transformation projects involves navigating increasingly strict data protection regulations, while at the same time coping with risk and inefficiency associated with data silos and copy-based data integration.

Today a pioneering national standard approved by the Standards Council of Canada has been published aimed at providing organizations with a framework to accelerate the delivery of digital innovation projects.

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According to new research, 62 percent of eCommerce organizations say that real-time data collection will be at the forefront of their priorities for 2023.

The study, carried out for Oxylabs by Censuswide, surveyed over 1,000 senior data decision-makers, split between UK and US eCommerce companies. It finds that as companies begin to rely more on efficient and low-cost data collection methods such as external data gathering, used by 40.54 percent of respondents, there is a clear shift towards gaining more actionable insights.

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Thanks to eCommerce, IoT devices, social media and more, organizations are collecting larger volumes of data than ever before. But often this is on the basis that they collect everything and work out what to do with it later. An approach that opens them up to risk that data can be misused.

We spoke to open detection and response firm Corelight's CISO Bernard Brantley, who believes organizations can implement a complete data strategy, allowing them to work backward from risk to raw logs and create a supply chain that generates information critical to risk reduction activities.

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It has undoubtedly been a turbulent few years for the UK manufacturing industry. On top of the supply chain headaches caused by Brexit and the pandemic, spiraling energy prices have presented new financial challenges in recent months. All of this comes as larger, darker clouds loom overhead, with recent S&P Global/CIPS UK Manufacturing PMI data showing that the UK manufacturing industry is on the brink of a recession.

To succeed, or even just keep afloat, in this environment, it is now more important than ever for manufacturers to innovate and drive greater operational efficiency. So, what are some of the actions manufacturers need to take to be successful in 2023?

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It’s no exaggeration to say that data drives business today. Organizations are literally flooded with data on all fronts, particularly as they accelerate their digital transformation and cloud migration. As data proliferates, it’s increasingly difficult to manage. That’s where metadata comes in. Though metadata is often described as "data about data," it’s actually much more than that.

Metadata is generated whenever data is ingested, accessed by users, moved around an organization, integrated or augmented with data from other sources, profiled or cleaned and analyzed. All this information creates the context for other data elements, providing a complete picture of the data. This holistic view makes it possible to organize and locate data, to understand what it means and to maximize its value.

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Data is increasingly seen as being among and organization’s most valuable assets and businesses are generating more and more of it.

But of course it has to be stored and kept secure. Much of it is in an unstructured form too, which creates additional challenges. We asked some experts in the data and storage field to give us some predictions for this sector in the coming year.

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Since the explosion of technology in the last few decades, data has been increasingly positioned as a silver bullet that can fix all the trials and tribulations of the modern world. For those giant tech companies who amassed mass amounts of (mostly) third-party data, data was the new oil -- sold in barrels to any company wanting to find and scale an audience. But KPIs on data effectiveness became increasingly viable, businesses began to question the amount of data they’d bought.  

Parallel to this, governments and consumer rights groups became aware of the increasing volume of unwanted noise being thrown at potential clients and customers. Businesses, both B2B and B2C, became liable for data missteps -- case in point with Meta being fined 17m euro for what amounted to bad data housekeeping.

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More than half (54 percent) of respondents to a new survey say securing data with appropriate access rights is one of their biggest hurdles. While almost 60 percent believe their organizations should be placing extra emphasis on data security.

The third annual State of Data Engineering Survey from Immuta also finds that that 89 percent of organizations report missing business opportunities because of data access bottlenecks.

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We hear a lot of talk these days about the virtues of data-driven organizations. That’s certainly reasonable up to a point -- but what does it really mean? When it comes to routine operational decisions, in particular, the current bias seems to favor increased automation over human judgment. The data doesn’t lie -- or so the story goes -- so we’re better off deferring to programmatic decision models.

That may be reasonable for some situations, but when you’re operating in a complex and nuanced domain, take casualty insurance claims for example, that highly automated decision paradigm can begin to fall apart very quickly. Thousands of different variables come into play. Medical records and accident reports contain subtle details that provide vital clues about potential risks. To complicate matters further, important minutiae are often buried deep inside the narrative content.

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Data centers around the world are currently home to an estimated 1,327 exabytes of data. This information has a potentially huge value so it needs protecting.

But as more businesses choose to trust their information to external data centers how can they be sure that it's going to be properly secured? We spoke to Oliver Pinson-Roxburgh, CEO of Defense.com, to find out how organizations can choose the most secure data center possible?

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