How Do You Manage Big Data?
Where everything we do generates information that is stored, processed and analysed rapidly. Creating data so voluminous it has become central to our social interaction, to the way we analyze markets, to how we control traffic, forecast the weather and many other daily operations.
Here are the bare facts. 48 hours of videos are uploaded onto YouTube every minute of every day. In that same time, 204 million emails are sent and there are over 2 million search queries on Google. By the time you read this, the figures would probably all have increased.
The data flow is now so fast, that 2.7 zetabytes of data exist in the digital universe today. That’s 27 with 21 zeroes after it. 90 percent of all the data in the world today has been created in just the last 2 years. Every 2 days, we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up till 2003.
If you find it difficult to wrap your head around the figures, try to imagine how individuals, businesses and even governments are trying to manage this seemingly endless flow of voluminous data.
How do you make sense of it all? Here are 3 solutions to help you manage Big Data.
ICT
The first is Information Communication Technology or ICT. ICT is concerned with the storage, retrieval, manipulation, transmission or receipt of digital data. More importantly, it is concerned with the way these different uses can work with each other.
And that is why the term, Internet of Things or IoT, has become popular in ICT. It describes an advanced connectivity of devices, systems and services that goes beyond machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.
In this aspect, companies like Toshiba are providing planning and consultancy solutions that are platform, business and industry centric. These solutions allow companies to harness the wealth of the data generated, managed and stored.
STORAGE DEVICE
With so much data generated, how do you store it? Depending on your devices, we are talking about flash drives, hard disk and solid state drives (SSD).
And it doesn’t matter who you are; an enterprise, a data centre or an individual, without storage, there is no data.
And that’s why some companies have placed so much emphasis in developing storage hardware. Having been at the forefront of hard disk manufacturing since the 1960s, Toshiba manufactures high quality and high capacity data storage devices. In recent years, the focus has shifted to miniaturization, larger capacities and faster processing speeds to keep up with the exponential volume of data being generated.
DATA CENTRE
So where would you house all these storage devices? That would be your data centre. While some companies choose to house their data centres on their own premises, there is an increasing trend of outsourcing the responsibility to a third party.
If there is a need to inject more flexibility, Toshiba has created the modular data centre which provides a quick and easy way of expanding based on usage needs. Toshiba’s technology not only shortens the lead time to set up, it also reduces the start-up cost of growing a company’s data storage.
As business grows, adding a new data centre is as easy as adding another module. And you can choose if you would prefer to install it on your premises or at an external location provided by a third party.
As your data storage needs grow, high-density server arrangements may be difficult to sustain as some infrastructure do not have the air-conditioning or power source to support it. Without the correct environment, unexpected breakdowns could occur and cause severe disruptions. But Toshiba’s modular data centres are built with these conditions in mind. With innovative hybrid technology that channels cool and warm air efficiently through separate aisles in the design, this allows adequate cooling while saving energy from having to cool every part of the data centre.
So do we have the means to manage this avalanche of data being generated on a daily basis?
The answer may lie in the know-how derived from a wide range of technologies and services. At Toshiba, they call this concept ‘lifenology’. Coined from the words ‘life’ and ‘technology’, it is a product philosophy that guides Toshiba in creating a suite of technologies, products and services designed to add value to life.
In the era of IoT, Toshiba has the capabilities in embedded device manufacturing, connectivity infrastructure and application deployments to meet your Big Data needs. Continually enriching lives by improving the way information is stored and managed.
Now are you ready to work, live and play in the Digital Age?
