How will we handle the New Oil?

Data is the new oil. But unlike the old oil, which has a storing and distributing process that is decades old, we are still grappling with how to handle the New Oil. This becomes more so since everything is getting rapidly digitized, a process that has only been speeded up thanks to Covid. Once IoT (Internet of Things) devices start multiplying, will we be able to handle the explosion? We still have a lot of unstructured and unread data. Can we bring it all into the grid quickly? Can we keep optimizing analytic tools using tools like Artificial Intelligence?

Storing of data and backing it up requires a huge amount of data centers as the cloud continues to expand. Data migration is another issue and smaller players struggle with that. There’s data sovereignty wherein the data has to obey the laws of the land. Every country has different sets of rules even though we are trying to get them standardized. The location of data is important. Every government would rather keep the data in their own countries. Geography matters!

There’s data security. It is quite sensitive. Who can view your data? Data has to be kept securely. Bad actors shouldn’t steal it. Cybersecurity is getting more relevant by the day. Then there’s data privacy. Everyone wants to keep their data private. But is that possible? Don’t tech giants already have access to your data? Can they share it with their partners? Can they share it with the government?

How much data from citizens can a government ask for and when they store it, is it as secure as those kept by the best players in the industry? Surveillance and contact tracing both have led to a whole new world of data issues. What about data ethics? Are we able to keep a hold on that?

There’s the path that data takes. Today we have a network of data centres all over the world, an expanding mobile workforce and a rising Work From Home culture. We all have multiple devices and multiple WiFi connections at home. The global Internet data network is getting denser and heavier with data each passing day. We are finally heading towards a paperless office, a pipe dream in the 1980s. You can do everything online from booking, to purchasing to verification to government jobs. Your mobile is now your wallet and I-card. That simply means more online data.

Data was already there, but only now is it getting rapidly digitized and increasing exponentially. Call it Gigantic Data rather than Big Data. Success in the 2020s will depend on our mastery over every challenge that this the New Oil throws at us.