The annual EMC World conference was held last week in Las Vegas, and once again experts and thought leaders delivered presentations that inspired and instilled enthusiasm.
Major IT trends of 2015 was largely the topic of conversation, and it is everything about big data, the Internet of Things (IoT) and open source that captured our attention. In fact, all these aspects of IT have a common point: the transformation of enterprises of all sizes.
How big data transforms businesses
Big data is definitely a buzz word, and this was even more evident at EMC World. Every business today relies on technology, be it manufacturing, the service industry or even the cultural arena.
The volume of data generated by businesses has been steadily increasing for several years, to the point that we now speak of data lakes, a concept defining large volumes of data in which the analytical requirements are not defined until the data is queried.
The most intriguing part of the sessions was getting concrete examples of how companies in very varied industries of business exploited big data to improve products and processes.
1. Improving performance in motorsport
The GP motorcycle driver John McGuiness illustrated perfectly the undeniable value of data in his speech "surprise". In motorcycle racing, championships are won on details. This is why the team of John McGuiness used sensors to collect data on countless settings of the bike, especially at the level of stability and resistance.
Data analysis allowed them to optimize the performance of the bike and the driver in a race, and to bring home more victories.
2. Improving emergency interventions
On the topics of topography and geolocation, a company that provides views to Google Earth showed how powerful algorithms can assemble shots taken at different times to identify alterations in a territory.
For example, the earthquake of April in Nepal tragically illustrates the need to collect and be able to process survey data to better intervene in crises.
3. Advancing Medicine
One last example that deserves to be highlighted is that of the large-scale collection of medical data. The correlation of patient data can for example help to identify areas where the occurrence of certain diseases are higher. Subsequently, the analysis of this data allows to deduce the risk factors that can cause these incidence peaks.
The era of open-source is a motor of collaboration
EMC's vision is to shake up the corporate landscape with open source software to get away from the confinement of proprietary platforms. This strategy is rooted in the desire to offer all businesses, large or small, access and contribution to a community that serves both private and common interests.
Today, this openness is no longer reserved for platforms which have always been positioned as open source, like Linux. Software giants who always ardently defended proprietary technologies are jumping on board. Among them, we have EMC obviously, but also Microsoft and VMware.
According to Randy Bias, VP Technology at EMC, their open source strategy begins with the CoprHD (Copperhead) project. The project will make the ViPR controller for programmable storage or software-defined storage open for community deployment.
Open source is definitely in the limelight and is redefining the paradigms of community collaboration.
In the era of "digitalization" (digital information), companies can no longer ignore the growing importance and value of information. Consequently, they must exploit it to develop new opportunities.
Today, technology is the key to opening up a whole new world of analysis and processing of data, which should lead companies to place information technology at the heart of their development and growth strategy.
