Data and technology touch every aspect of both personal and business life. For example, you do business over a global network and you communicate using a hand-sized computer with more power than the world’s first supercomputer. Within a few years, your car will drive itself more safely than you can and a handwriting robot will sign your important documents for you.
The advance of technology has always been a mixed bag. On the one hand, high tech consumer and business products have improved the health, safety, productivity, and knowledge of society. On the other hand, technology exposes societies to new risks, like hacking and data loss, radiation and chemical exposure, economic disruptions, and job losses.
As a result, every business must appreciate the importance of data, technology, content, and its positive and negative aspects. Here are four facts that highlight the importance of data and technology:
Hacking is Common
Businesses depend on technology. As of 2020, over 33% of data passes through the cloud. However, businesses that blindly rely on third parties to secure their data expose their data and the data of their customers to cyber attacks. That said, where technology creates a problem, it also creates solutions. Businesses that understand security against hacking as a cost of doing business can use technology to protect their data and their customers’ data, including that which is in the cloud.
Still, data breaches are a growing problem today. In fact, more than 35% of Americans report being the victim of hacking in some form.
While most consumers fear hacking of their financial accounts and their communications (email, instant messaging, and social media accounts), hackers are increasingly targeting insurance information, medical records, and even customer loyalty programs. The reason for this is that these types of accounts contain a treasure trove of personal data that can be used to steal victims’ identities. Worse yet, many businesses that maintain this type of information believe their databases go unnoticed by hackers.
Privacy security measures for companies not only reduces their risk of lawsuits and investigation by government regulators, but is also a selling point for potential customers.
Being proactive in securing data, actively hunting for security breaches and vulnerabilities, and developing a hacking response plan can put a business on the path to secure computing. This approach will benefit businesses and their customers.
Data is Everywhere
Whether a business appreciates it or not, every business is awash in data. For example, any business that advertises can collect marketing data on their conversion rates, click-through rates, and customer satisfaction. Similarly, any business that maintains a customer database has data on customer retention rates.
For years, businesses focused on “big data” and collected as much information as they could. This resulted in haystacks of data, but these businesses had to expend time, people, and money on finding the needles that represented the useful bits.
Businesses that appreciate the importance of technology and data have shifted their focus from “big data” to “smart data.” This shift in emphasis has two parts:
- Develop better ways to sort, filter, and use “big data” collected in the past to glean relevant trends and data points.
- Use data-driven experience to develop better ways of collecting data in the future so that it is more useful.
Communication Bandwidth is Critical
In the past, communication was often rated in terms of speed and reliability. While these metrics are still important, bandwidth has become one of the most critical metrics for measuring communication.
Bandwidth is like the diameter of a tube. When the speed of the water is the same, more water flows through a fire hose than a drinking straw because the diameter is larger. In the same way, that diameter is more important than speed when delivering water, bandwidth is more important than speed when you need to deliver more data.
All analog phone calls made using conventional phone lines were the same. Since all phone calls were made equal, there was no need to increase the bandwidth of phone lines even as phone lines began to be used to send faxes.
However, digital data transmissions vary widely. Viewing video conference requires much more data than loading a static webpage. As a result, bandwidth becomes a critical measure of your business’s ability to use its computing infrastructure.
Many telecommunications providers and municipalities have upgraded their telecommunications infrastructure to fiber optics, which have a data bandwidth of 15.5 terabits per second. Even when it is shared among users, this provides the bandwidth to handle many common applications, such as video conferencing, that businesses use. However, going forward, businesses will find ever-increasing demands for bandwidth.
Technology Will Advance
Much has been written about Moore’s Law. According to this observation by the founder of Intel in 1965, computing power doubles every two years, but the price of computers halves every two years. This means that computers grow in power, and drop in price, exponentially.
As a result of this increase in computing power, new uses for computers become possible. Moreover, the decrease in price makes computers more widely available. These facts combine to open up new opportunities for businesses, governments, and other organizations.
For example, in the past, targeted marketing was highly difficult because of the difficulty of identifying and reaching potential customers. Now, customers are easily reachable through technologies like social media platforms and mobile phone apps.
Moreover, customers can seek out niche businesses around the world for specific products and services. This has benefited both businesses and customers. Specialty businesses like reputable electronics manufacturing services (EMS) are able to reach customers for their products and customers that require high-quality electronics parts are able to avoid purchasing parts and components that are substandard or counterfeit.
Data and technology will drive every business forward, regardless of the industry or customers they serve. Technology and data will also open doors to innovation that will allow new businesses to develop and manufacture new products or deliver new services. This march forward will bring both benefits and anxieties. However, using technology to develop solutions can help ease any anxieties that will create a more accessible, safe, and productive society.
