Big Data Trends for 2019: Management and Storage

This year’s data trends focus on protecting and managing data as well as
maximizing its value. Data backup and storage of data quality, including real-time data, can function as the successful foundation of any IT strategy, though a concept in the decision-making process isn’t always the first thing that comes to mind. You need a solid foundation on which to build your data sources and data storage can provide foundation. Storage is essentially the base for your data center and cloud, essentially making it the foundation of your organization or business.

Below, are the top data management and storage trends of 2019. Many are
extensions of progress made in 2018 while others are brand new concepts will likely continue to grow and expand in the years to come.

Analytics

The power of analytics is profound. The world’s most successful companies do everything within their power to deliver personalized experiences to their customer base every chance they can. This is due, in part, to the fact doing so has shown to increase sales and reinforce customer loyalty; two concepts incredibly important to a business’s success.

The faster an organization or business can react to a new piece of data
through high-performance computing, the better. It is that function that helps drive real-time analytics and data integration. As analytic teams mature and improve, the ability to react quickly becomes both easier and
cheaper to pull off.

It is only possible to deliver a personalized experience to customers with a data management layer that has strong capabilities when it comes to analytics. This trend is likely to continue well beyond 2019.

Data Governance Increases in Importance

Governing data processing effectively and efficiently has become a mainstream issue. It seems that data breaches have become part of everyday life, as shown by the sheer number that is documented each year. It seems as though a number of companies have had their networks breached, leaving the data of customers vulnerable and, in many instances, the data was stolen outright.

Maintaining the integrity and security of data has never been more important, given this trend in data breaches. New regulations have now come into action, namely GDPR and PSDW, which only serve to reinforce the issue further. And, of course, data security and safety remain a top priority of consumers. Given how important the issue is to consumers, it must also maintain that same level of importance with businesses and organizations. 

According to The Harris Poll, close to 60 million Americans were impacted by some type of identity theft in 2018 alone. An amount is equal to a 300% increase from the previous year. In 2017, 15 million companies claimed to
have been affected by identity theft. While that number is still daunting, it
seems data security has become even less powerful in just the last year, as the number has grown exponentially.

It’s expected data governance will continue to grow in importance throughout 2019 and in future years as well. Consumers want to know their
personal data is secure. And those businesses and companies can provide that feeling of security and stability are likely to reap the reward in the way of revenue and customer loyalty. Look for data security and governance to remain on the list of big data trends for the next several years.

Hybrid Cloud

There are clearly a number of data platforms available for storage, as
well as big data and analytics, with some more secure than others. You can store data internally or you can use infrastructure that is managed by someone else. You could choose to store data that was of a less sensitive nature on a public cloud or you could pay to make use of private cloud infrastructure.

The cloud changed virtually everything when it was initially introduced.
It is big, as in really big, and there seems to be no end to its growth in
sight. Given its popularity, as well as what it provides, it is becoming harder
for businesses to resist the cloud. It is cheap to store data and it provides
technology and big data tools that are really hard to pass up.  

Small businesses, as well as startups, are consistently finding the cloud to be increasingly attractive as part of their business analytics. While that has been a seemingly constant trend, larger companies are also now finding it hard to resist what the cloud has to offer.

That said, the threat of a lock-in may keep larger companies from putting everything into a single cloud. This makes sense from a practical and economic standpoint. When you put everything into one place, you stand vulnerable. One of the big data trends of 2019 helps to resolve that issue for larger businesses. And that trend also relates back to protecting data.

The introduction of a new concept, the hybrid cloud, is bringing an increased number of advantages to companies who do not want to use just a single cloud. The use of multi-cloud environments proves to be a big data trend
for 2019.

Hybrid clouds allow organizations to address the security and privacy concerns that managing data creates. Hybrid clouds allow for operations to be streamlined more efficiently and they lower overall costs.

In 2019, many companies are looking to these hybrid clouds for their data storage needs. A hybrid cloud allows businesses to save very sensitive
data on-site in private cloud infrastructure while saving less sensitive data
in the public cloud. Many organizations use a multi-cloud storage system and mechanism to both save money and simultaneously protect the most sensitive and critical data.  

While multi-cloud environments are increasing, on-premises data and
applications are not set to fall completely by the wayside just yet. We will
have to see what future years have in store for the cloud and hybrid models.

Artificial Intelligence

Data centers have changed significantly in the last couple of years and
continue to do so in 2019. They will likely continue that trend in future
years. Artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be playing a strong role in the
development and design of the new data center.

AI creates several benefits to the end user. As it is developed and put
into motion, data centers will inevitably become more efficient. That isn’t the
only benefit, however. In addition, the end user likely reaps the following
benefits:

• Reduce consumption of power while simultaneously increasing overall performance
• Modernize operations as data can be analyzed faster
• Increase security as systems can be monitored round the clock; get ahead of potential data breach threats
• Distribute existing workloads across multiple servers, decreasing existing inefficiencies

The First 5G Networks

While it remains true 4G speed is likely still fast enough to maintain the needs of most individual consumers, a commonly used 5G network may be on the horizon.

The upgrade to a 5G network may be adopted for machine-to-machine communication as well as the Internet of Things (IoT) technology. This is a trend that may prove particularly strong in 2019. What’s more, it will likely continue to grow over the next couple of years as speed has always been a primary technological focus.

These new 5G networks offer several new opportunities for cloud service
providers and distributors alike. They allow for the collection, storage, management and processing of the largest volume of data possible, larger than anything we’ve seen before. This simply provides increased efficiency and it separates a 5G business from its competitors.

Conclusion

Technology continues to transform as rapidly as ever and while 2018 had
its own set of new concepts and trends, the data management and storage trends promised by 2019 have their own set of unique promises. 

From the hybrid cloud to data governance, there is clearly an emphasis
on the integrity and safety of data. This is a continuation of concerns from
years past. What’s more, it isn’t likely going to fade any time soon. It is a
matter of importance to consumers which ultimately means businesses and organizations must also find data integrity important. It could (and should) be a great concern for the overall integrity of any business.

And from analytics to geospatial search and artificial intelligence, the end user’s experience is enhanced while building data management solutions are easier to manage and build at the developer’s end. These issues are of importance to businesses as they enhance the experience of the consumer while also making back-end processes more efficient and easier to manage.