08 Jun How MSPs Can Help Businesses Get More Out of Massive Data Sets

Below are the highlights of a conversation with Melyssa Banda – Vice President of Lyve Mobile Solutions – about how businesses can make the most of their data.

With a large portion of data not being used, how can businesses get the most out of their data?

Data is a treasure trove of value that businesses don’t always know what to do with. According to the Rethink Data report, only 32% of data available to enterprises is put to use. How can businesses get more value out of their data?

First, they must tackle the barriers that impede this value, such as:

• Data sprawl
• Edge capacity overflow
• Unstructured data resulting from growing automation and machine data creation
• Bandwidth limitations
• Growing TCO associated with data storage and movement • difficulties in finding ways to offload and store massive data sets • ubiquitous data silos
• Weak data strategies

How does data agility factor into this?

Hugely. About 87% of organisations will use external service providers to migrate data to the cloud by 2026. That movement is happening in an increasingly complex data landscape. It is marked by unprecedented data growth, with nearly 180ZB of data volume expected by 2025, and with enterprise data growing at the rate of 42% on average just last year.

Data is more sprawled than ever.

Not only does data reside at locations that are far from each other, but the movement of heavy data streams between them requires support. The growth of multicloud adds to the complexity. With the exponential costs of cloud storage (egress, ingress, API fees), edge and on-premises capacities started to reach their limits, and data sets became too heavy to move over the network.

The challenge is not just about moving data, but from where to where and who has access and being locked into historical platforms and tools. Enter the need for frictionless physical data transport and the increased frequency of transfers. About 65% of enterprises are physically moving data and the market for physical data movement is growing by double digits.

Can you give an example or two of organisations struggling with data mobility?

Any organisation managing massive data sets (100TB and more) finds that the bandwidth is often insufficient for quick transfers, delaying time to insights and value. I know of teams of scientists in the wilderness of Montana whose work combats climate change by tracking wildfire data and sage grouse populations. Researchers working for University of Montana’s Autonomous Aerial Systems Office and for Nature Conservancy were frustrated with having to wait for huge data sets to upload to the cloud.

Eliminating the endless delays that impeded their research was crucial for their success. They also needed security so that data wasn’t lost to the tough demands of field work, as well as long-term reliability so they could continue pulling insights from their data for years to come. They’re not fans of idle data and idle hours in the field.

This predicament is true for corporations, too.

Yes. The most innovative companies today struggle with data mobility. Take the marine surveyor Terradepth. From predicting atmospheric weather patterns, to building underwater energy and telecom infrastructures, to protecting the future of our coastal communities, Terradepth collects data that is changing the way we interact with the ocean. But the amount of data needed to map the ocean is staggering. With more than 80% of the ocean unexplored, the data collected would clog the pipelines so much that the outflow – and insights from it – could never catch up.

What solutions exist for researchers and corporations alike to help them get the most out of their data while lowering TCO?

Data shuttle and offloading services have become a winner in situations when bandwidth transfers would significantly slow time to insights. That’s why Seagate built Lyve Mobile, a mass-capacity mobile edge storage and data transfer service using frictionless, rugged data shuttles that quickly move heaps of data. Faster time to insights means faster time to greater business value. Lyve Mobile was a game changer for the Montana researchers and Terradepth alike.

Another solution to highlight here is managed service providers. About 50% of companies that use physical data transfer turn to managed service providers to help them with their data transfer needs.

What data storage solutions help when data is at rest?

Once the data is done with its journey, organisations need to store it while retaining easy access to it. Companies that reach scale can find themselves facing unpredictable bills and fees for moving data sets in and out of the public cloud.

Finally, for enterprises that want to scale their private data centres with industry-leading density, nothing beats storage systems powered by industry leading, capacious enterprise-class hard drives and SSDs. There are a plethora of great self-healing, high-density data storage systems out there.

Ultimately, so much comes down to being able to use and safeguard data well, doesn’t it? It’s what propels humanity forward.