Key data and analytics trends shaping your business in 2021

Data is at the heart of the 4th Industrial revolution. Everything from AI, IoT, automated drones, driverless cars, 3D Printing, and automation are enabled with Data and Analytics. Data is truly the new oil.  Today, we are seeing the rapid adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies as organizations are trying to carve a strong digital presence.

Consequently, apart from the aforementioned technologies, there has been an unprecedented increase in the adoption of cloud services in 2020. According to Gartner, the spend by end users on public cloud services grew by 18.4 percent in 2021 to $304.9 billion from $257.5 billion in 2020. Further, cloud spending due to the new will increase by 70 percent in 2021. This trend is also applicable to other industry 4.0 technologies.

So let’s take a quick look at some of the key trends (based on insights from Forbes) that will impact how data and analytics are used for life, industry, and commerce.

Artificial Intelligence

The biggest problem today is not that we have insufficient data but we have a lot of data. It is not humanly possible to sift through all this data, analyse it, and leverage timely business insights. Presently, the amount of unstructured and structured that is collected by companies is too large for most manual analytics processes.

Here, AI can be a gamechanger as it interprets all of the humongous amount of data and leverage actionable insights in a short frame of time. AI for instance can be used to make a prediction about the life cycle. It must be noted that AI does not offer definite answers but rather insights. It essentially depicts results based on a range of probabilities and offers insight into probable outcomes.

According to MarketsandMarkets, the global predictive analytics market size is expected to grow to USD 21.5 billion in 2025 from a mere USD 7.2 billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 24.5 % during the forecast period.

Data Governance

Privacy and governance requirements must be met with as 2021 sees an increase in the data collected.  Today, trust is of the utmost importance. End users or the target audience would like to know where the data is being stored and what specific information about them is being collected. Organizations will have to be more vigilant about data security than every before with the advent of remote-working and increase in the surface area of cybersecurity attacks. The business is more likely to lose its market reputation if data security measures are not met properly. Customers too will stop trusting the business and it would lead to domino effect.  In contrast, maintaining a relationship would empower organizations and customers alike.

Edge computing and the hybrid cloud

Organizations today realize that remote-working has more pros than cons. With proper data security and hygiene it can be at the heart of an agile and resilient digital enterprise. The adoption of cloud computing has had a major impact on how analytics is carried out. It has done away with expensive on-premise infrastructure setups and led to a more agile work environment. This cloud driven ability to access vast data reservoirs seamlessly and act on in it in real-time is a game-changer for organizations. It has impelled the growth of data-driven services by startups and the development of various cloud-based apps. Organizations today are adopting a hybrid cloud approach as they realize that solely relying on the public cloud is not the best strategy and they have to comply with governance and security protocols.

The advent of IoT has also enabled Edge Computing. This will open up new frontiers for data analytics in 2021 and beyond.  The edge computing market is expected to grow to USD 15.7 billion in 2025 from USD 3.6 billion in 2020, depicting a CAGR of 34.1 during the forecast period, according to MarketsandMarkets.

Conclusion

It is clear that those who make a timely migration to the cloud and industry 4.0 technologies can maintain business continuity. Data analytics will garner new insights and lead to new market opportunities for businesses. An era of digital disruption also means that the scope for collaboration between industries is greater than ever before.  It is an opportunity to reprogram for greater resilience and agility where technology is only a part of the equation. The other aspect that organizations will need to focus on is a digital first mindset.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ET Edge Insights, its management, or its members

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