**** Cloud computing and big data, the global IT sector’s top-trending themes, are transforming how we live and work, Bob Savage, Vice-President and Managing Director of EMC’s Centre of Excellence, will tell the annual summit of the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) in Cork later today. ** ** EMC, the cloud, big data and IT security US multinational which employs over 3,000 people in Ireland, predicts that big data will revolutionise how organisations operate and scale, as well as combat complex cyber threats, all enabled by an agile cloud environment.**** ** ** Mr Savage will tell the Technology Panel at ITLG’s ‘Silicon Valley Comes to Cork’ event in City Hall that big data’s potential goes far beyond traditional rear-view business intelligence.**** ** ** ‘Big data can reveal patterns in near real time to facilitate making a quantum leap from incremental improvement to predictive business processes and even entirely new business models. When coupled with the cloud model, which slashes organisations’ capital and operating costs, big data can transform the business environment. It can uncover opportunities for growth that would otherwise remain hidden,’ said Mr Savage.**** ** ** Big data will soon be part of every sector of the global economy as organisations try to capitalise on the wealth of historic and real-time information generated through sensory devices, supply chains, production processes and customer behaviour. **** ** ** According to the recent EMC-sponsored IDC Digital Universe study, the proliferation of devices such as PCs and smartphones, increased internet access in emerging markets, and the growth in data from machines such as surveillance cameras or smart meters has contributed to the doubling of the amount of digital information in the world in the past two years. By 2020, IDC estimates that the digital universe will reach 40 zetabytes – or 57 times the amount of all the grains of sand on all the beaches on earth.**** ** ** ‘The growth in information is creating opportunities for organisations to generate individual-specific profiles, uncovering patterns to produce business and public policy insights. For example, retailers such as supermarkets and high-street stores are routinely collating social network information, blog content and analyst research – as well as demographics – in order to crunch it all together and identify crucial trends and correlations to customer loyalty. Executive leadership is vital in driving a culture of change for the way information is seen, managed and exploited in Irish businesses. Ireland’s enterprise sector should give serious consideration to the potential of a big data programme, assigning the resources and driving the conversations needed to shift the mindset of the business from retrospective analysis and forecasting to real-time, forward-looking insight,’ said Mr Savage.**** ** ** EMC believes that big data will fuel intelligence-driven IT security models. **** ** ** ‘Security leaders are shifting to an intelligence-driven security model, supported by big data-enabled tools, which incorporates dynamic risk assessments, the analysis of vast volumes of security data, adaptive controls and information sharing about threats and attack techniques,’ said Mr Savage.
22nd January, 2013