Data Age 2025: The Evolution of Data to Life-Critical Don’t Focus on Big Data; Focus on the Data That’s Big Sponsored by Seagate Conclusion There is a massive opportunity for data to affect positive change on all of human society. Not only is data making business more effective, but it is in the process of transforming every aspect of the individual’s life. Not only do new-paradigm services like those from Uber and Netflix depend on data, but the same is true for our cities, hospitals, stores, businesses of all type, and soon every single aspect of human society. We are finding ways for data to make our lives better that we didn’t imagine even a few years ago. The way society uses data is going through a fundamental shift: • From entertainment to productivity • From business focused to hyperpersonal • From structured to unstructured • From selective to ubiquitous • From retrospective to here and now • From life-enhancing to life-critical As computing power becomes increasingly distributed, moving to the cloud and into the everyday IoT devices and infrastructure that surround us, data will continue to drive fundamental improvements to businesses, industries, our processes, and our everyday lives. These trends are causing the total amount of all data on the planet, the global datasphere, to grow exponentially. With three-quarters of the world’s population soon to be connected, digital data will affect the life of nearly every human being, essentially becoming the lifeblood of our increasing digital existence. The use and integration of data in businesses and our lives are quickly moving to real time. As such, data is delivered to not only inform but also determine actions — sometimes autonomously. While entertainment remains an important driver of data creation and consumption, it is ceding share to productivity data that will bring more efficiency and automation to not only business workflows but also the everyday stream of life. Therefore, the stakes are rising and, with them, the critical importance of our data’s veracity and timeliness. IDC White Paper © 2017 IDC. www.idc.com | Page 23