Big Data – The raw material of the 21st century

Lots of the ever-increasing volume of data still bypasses numerous of companies. The DEMAND Project, funded by the German government, should shortly support companies in effectively using data resources to successfully overcome the digital transformation.

• The globally generated volume of data is steadily on the rise. 90 percent of the currently available data have only developed in the last two years.
• Big Data offers immense possibilities for companies to qualitatively improve both their products and services and align them more closely to the needs of their customer.
• Prerequisite for a successful use of data is the presence of analysis competence as well as the creation of clear structures when dealing with data.

Currently, humankind produces vaguely 2.5 trillion bytes of data every day. To store this volume of data, 10 million of Blue-ray CD ‘s would be needed. That is why a large part of data is nowadays saved in clouds or deleted after a short time. Yet at the same time, the worldwide produced quantity of data grows at an exponential rate. Experts assume that the globally existing data volume will increase from 33 Zettabyte up to 175 Zettabyte until 2025 (one Zettabyte is a billion Terabyte).

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a growing generator of data

Data consists of, inter alia, texts, pictures, audio and video as well as technical log data. Due to the growing popularity of the IoT, the proportion of recorded sensor data will substantially increase. Soon, more than 200 billion of objects will be connected via the internet. This involves data producers such as motorway bridges counting the traffic as well as increasingly utilized health-apps. In addition, emerging countries such as China, India or Brazil are increasingly becoming significant players alongside main data producers in Europe, the US and Japan.

To use data, you need analysis capabilities

The enormous flood of data can only be viably used if companies and institutions invest in appropriate analysis competences and capabilities. Since 90 percent of the arising data is, in the first instance, unstructured, they need a competent classification and evaluation. Those who make use of the existing data capabilities are able to generate substantial opportunities and can gain a qualitatively more attractive proposal preparation due to improved understanding of customers and their needs. That applies to diverse sectors – from producing companies to trading businesses to healthcare and financial service providers. Even resource-efficient planning of transport services can be taken into account.

DEMAND Project providing valuable assistance

Having the support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy as a project sponsor, DEMAND is now able to support companies and their efficient use of data. Other project partners are the Fraunhofer Institute for Software und System Technology, the Cologne Institute for Economic Research and technology companies such as Thyssenkrupp, Advaneo und Breuer Nachrichtentechnik.

DEMAND, therefore, develops specific and individual solutions for usable architectures, procedure models and tools for the digital transformation process used in practice and can be utilized by interested companies.