40 zettabytes of data will be created by 2020, according to IBM. That’s 300 times more data than was created in 2005. To give organisations competitive advantage, they need to put big data to work, and should be considering how data can be transferred to provide near real-time data analysis. Network latency slows wide area networks (WANs) and impinges B2B and B2C marketers from gaining access to an accurate picture of their customers and markets.
Apart from that, why does this matter? According to B2B Marketing, “Big data and the ‘internet of things’ (IoT) are projected to boost the UK economy by £322 billion by 2020, according to research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) and SAS.” To gain the most from this growing market, marketers to need to use business intelligence systems that can send, retrieve and analyse data as it happens (as well as continue to operate whenever a disaster strikes).
The data perspective
From a data perspective organisations should identify:
- Where the data comes from
- How they can transport it effectively
Data might originate in-house, it could have been purchased from an analytics company or generated from key influences such as social media and news feeds. The internet of things (IoT) adds to this complexity, widening the origins of big data – emanating from a wide array of applications and devices.
Big data changes marketing
Bernard Marr, an author and business and data expert, is therefore correct when he writes that ‘Big Data Is Changing B2B Marketing’. He advises marketers to use data effectively to:
- Ask the right questions – Decide what you need to know in order to use big data to grow your business. Example – “Who wants to buy our product?”
- Identify and gather the correct data – Work out what data you need to answer the questions you asked in step one, and how you can gather it.
- Analyse the data – To come up with answers that can be turned into business growth.
Yet without an effective IT network infrastructure that ensures velocity in transporting data, these questions will be met with silence. B2B marketers need to collaborate with IT to ensure they implement network solutions that mitigate the impact of network latency on real-time data analysis; time is revenue and marketing is therefore not the only factor in achieving big data success.
Data can reside in the Cloud: it could be anywhere in the world and that creates its own problem with regards to the speed at which you can import data. This is multiplied as data sets get ever larger. These factors combined means that ingesting large data could become so slow that you cannot use the data – the exact opposite of what marketers are looking for.
Trying to send all this data down slow links is going to put you behind your competitors and just adding larger links isn’t always going to solve the problem. You can have the fastest car, but if there are lots of bends in the road your speed will be hindered. Wide Area Networks (WAN) and the Cloud is full of these bends that could be killing off your network performance.
Data first, infrastructure second
Rather than looking at it from an infrastructure perspective, marketers and their IT counterparts should work together to address what they wish to achieve from a data perspective. Data is the core currency today – not the infrastructure – so speed will be a crucial component to marketers extracting maximum ROI from it.
Marketers must begin by defining the data requirements as this will determine the infrastructure. The fresher the data, the more valuable it is. After all, marketing is about knowing your customer, and velocity is imperative when it comes to putting this insight to work. The quicker we get large volumes of data for analysis, the better the decision.
Increasing velocity
To increase velocity:
- Work collaboratively with chief financial officers (CFOs), chief executive officers (CEOs), chief information officers (CIOs) and with network administrators to ensure your organisation invests in making the most of their high speed WANs.
- Re-think how the network will be used because video and encrypted data is increasing, and high speed WAN connections are a game-changer for WAN Acceleration.
- Mitigate latency and packet loss effects on new data. This requires a rethink in WAN acceleration techniques. Products such as PORTrockIT with its pure acceleration can handle the new data types and scale in tune with the hi-speed WAN connections.
Protect intellectual property
Velocity is a prerequisite of a corporation’s fast data back-up and recovery process. With intellectual property being the lifeblood of all organisations, marketers should act now to enable business and service continuity to prevent downtime from unforeseen disasters. Speed is also about how an organisation can keep going – no matter what challenges it faces every day. To achieve this, follow these top five tips for fast data back-up and restore:
- Ensure there is an ‘air gap’ between live and backed up data to protect data l in the event of a ransomware attack and natural disasters.
- Identify threats and risks, people are finding new ways to threaten your data.
- Think data first, define the data you need to get back as this will define your back-up and restore policies as well as your infrastructure.
- Disaster recovery is everybody’s responsibility and not just IT’s. All senior executives should be involved, including CMOs. Don’t forget the buck ends with the CEO – get them involved as well.
- Practice, practice and practice.
By using innovative tools and approaches to data and network management, you should be able to make your big data at least 10 times faster than in the past, opening up new opportunities to become a market leader in today’s IoT and big data world.