Partners need to prep customer infrastructure for big data: study

We probably didn’t need research to tell us that the amount of data being generated daily is rising dramatically, but the EMC Corp.-sponsored (NYSE: EMC) IDC Digital Universe study “Big Data, Bigger Digital Shadows, and Biggest Growth in the Far East” serves to quantify the phenomenon, and lay clear the challenge customers face in getting a handle on that data deluge.

With the rapid proliferation of smartphones and tablets, not to mention laptops, as well as increased Internet access in emerging markets and the transition of surveillance technology to digital, IDC estimates the digital universe has doubled within the last two years and will reach 40 zetabytes by 2020 – that would be 5,247 GB of data for every man, woman and child on the planet.

Today, the digital universe is estimated at 2.8ZB, of which IDC estimates 23 per cent would be useful for big data if tagged and analyzed. However, only three per cent of that potentially useful data is being analyzed today.

It translates to an opportunity for channel partners to educate their clients about the value of big data, and help them build the infrastructure to store, manage and analyze the data said Michael Kerr, EMC Canada’s director of channels. Kerr adds partners also need to transition their businesses for big data, which EMC sees as a major growth area.

“The opportunity we’re starting to see for partners is in the area of data analytics. They have to help their customers transform the infrastructure they’ve built over the years to accommodate trends in virtualization and data growth,” said Kerr. “If you don’t have flexibility in your infrastructure, you’ve got a problem.”

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Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

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Jeff Jedras
Jeff Jedras
A veteran technology and business journalist, Jeff Jedras began his career in technology journalism in the late 1990s, covering the booming (and later busting) Ottawa technology sector for Silicon Valley North and the Ottawa Business Journal, as well as everything from municipal politics to real estate. He later covered the technology scene in Vancouver before joining IT World Canada in Toronto in 2005, covering enterprise IT for ComputerWorld Canada. He would go on to cover the channel as an assistant editor with CDN. His writing has appeared in the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen and a wide range of industry trade publications.

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