The disruptions of 2020 in the Data landscape
Edison
Author
Jan 25, 2021
The disruptions of 2020 in the Data landscape
The global technology landscape is increasingly accelerating towards more disruption, this time at an unprecedented scale. We are moving beyond rapid digitization, to hyper-connectivity, data analytics, and intelligent automation solutions that reach well beyond the boundaries of enterprises.
As Analytics and Business Intelligence systems mature, a number of different non-traditional technologies have begun to infiltrate both vertical and horizontal markets. Technologies that are making inroads are creating new disruptions for the current leaders in the Data landscape: Google, SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle.
The data landscape is rapidly changing with new technologies such as IoT, AI/ML, and Blockchain. These innovations are going to bring disruptions on the supply-demand side of the data market. The implications of these disruptions will be felt by organizations that rely on continuous access to high-quality data as they use it for their data-driven strategies.
AI has already influenced the smooth functioning of several industries such as banking and healthcare and is expected to permeate more business sectors in the future. The IT giants across the globe are betting big on AI, with Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently claiming it all started with AI and is still far from reaching its full potential. A large section of the tech expert fraternity is developing supportive frameworks such as TensorFlow, Keras, etc., while others are enhancing their Cloud hosting platforms to offer highly scalable AI products. It is only a matter of time until we recognize AI as an inseparable part of our daily lives
Individuals are enabling exponential data growth by using digital services and devices The widespread use of a plethora of digital services is transforming the data landscape. Faster connectivity and near-ubiquitous smartphone adoption – exceeding 80% in countries such as the UK – enable users to create and share vast volumes of data seamlessly. Globally, this is reflected in activities such as the 35 billion e-commerce transactions made annually, more than 6 billion online searches made each day, and around 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.
Consumer devices and applications have become ingrained in everyday lives. The average smartphone owner in the US, UK, Italy, and Spain interacts with more than 25 applications per month, including communication, productivity, games, entertainment, and travel applications. The amount of data being generated by individuals through these interactions is expanding exponentially as a result. As much as two-thirds of all data is estimated to have been generated by individuals – amounting to around 10 zettabytes, the equivalent of approximately two trillion DVDs. Exponential future growth is expected, with the total volume of digital data in existence expected to have increased tenfold by 2025.
New devices such as wearables, connected cars, and connected homes will make a key contribution; the International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts 80 billion connected devices by 2025 globally, compared to 11 billion connected devices in 2016. These devices will be supported by 5G networks that could support up to 1 million connected devices per square kilometer
Individuals create data by interacting with a diverse and expanding range of organizations Individuals today routinely use a variety of offline and online services. In doing so, they may establish ‘data relationships’ with organizations when they create and share data with a service provider, whether by registering, viewing online content, making purchases, or otherwise engaging with a service. There is limited existing evidence on the volume of data relationships overall, reflecting that data is generated and shared across a wide range of services and sectors. Some data relationships, such as with employers, insurers, or utility suppliers, occur across a large majority of individuals, but the potential for further data generation through other activities is vast. To explore this, Deloitte commissioned a bespoke survey conducted by Ipsos MORI to examine the usage of a range of common services10 by individuals in the UK, Germany, and France. Survey results reveal that individuals on average hold data relationships with 24 organizations across the select categories included in the survey, in addition to other data relationships falling within categories that are almost universally used. Overall, the average individual can be estimated to hold around 35 data relationships across all of these categories.
Within each category, the use of multiple providers is prevalent; for example, where individuals shop online, they typically use around five different retailers. These estimates may yet understate the true number, as the survey responses rely on recollection and therefore may focus on services and providers used most frequently or recently. The findings vary across individuals; for example, for the 10% of individuals who use a particularly wide range of services, the estimated overall number of data relationships is around 60 on average and in some cases exceeds 100. The set of services and providers used are different for each individual, meaning that the total number of providers individuals interact with across the categories is estimated to be in the order of hundreds. These findings appear consistent with relevant existing evidence. For example, in various developed countries, it is estimated that the average smartphone user uses more than 25 applications per month, which would not include other types of data relationships. Similarly, estimates of the number of online accounts held by each individual across all online services range from 25 to 90, potentially increasing to around 200 in years to come.
Further proliferation of data relationships will come from new devices and services The volumes and types of data created and shared across multiple organizations are growing rapidly as technological transformations expand the range of digital services and devices available to individuals. Data-led technologies, innovative online platforms and tools, and a myriad of IoT devices are combining to create new avenues of data creation and use.