Читать книгу Tech Trends in Practice - Бернард Марр, Bernard Marr - Страница 56

You might think that some of the most obvious challenges around big data are the technology, infrastructure, and skills challenges. To put it another way, do you have to have the budget, infrastructure, and know-how of, say, Google or Amazon to benefit from big data? Thanks to augmented analytics and big-data-as-a-service (BDaaS), the answer is no. I’ve covered augmented analytics earlier in the chapter, so let’s briefly look at BDaaS. The term refers to the delivery of big data tools and technology – and potentially even data itself – through software-as-a-service platforms. These services allow companies to access big data tools without the need for expensive infrastructure investments (see also AI-as-a-service in Trend 1), thereby helping to make big data accessible to even small businesses. This also helps to overcome the massive skills gap in big data. Essentially, there aren’t enough data scientists to go around; the McKinsey Global Institute predicts that, by 2024, there’ll be a shortage of approximately 250,000 data scientists – and that’s just in the US.⁹

As analytics tools advance, my hope is that technology, infrastructure, and skills will become less daunting barriers to working with data. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be other barriers to contend with. I believe two of the biggest challenges around big data are data security and privacy.

Ever-growing volumes of data – and the fact that data is becoming more of a critical business asset – brings huge challenges in terms of protecting that data. It’s therefore vital that organizations take steps to protect their data from attack, particularly when it comes to personal data (like customer or employee data). Advances like the IoT add an extra dimension to the threat, since many connected devices are totally unsecured, thereby providing a potential way in for hackers. (One study has found that 82% of organizations believe that unsecured IoT devices will cause a data breach in the next few years.¹⁰) But your employees are another significant threat to consider. So as well as having a robust data security policy in place, it’s vital you raise awareness of the potential threats and educate your teams on the need to protect data.

Security is closely linked to data privacy, since so much of the data that organizations are working with contains personally identifiable information. Regulators are, to some extent, still playing catchup when it comes to data privacy laws, but that will change. Recent GDPR guidance in Europe is designed to promote the safe and ethical handling of personal data – and give individuals a greater say in how organizations use their data. Therefore, it’s not enough to protect your data securely – you also need to take an ethical approach to collecting and using that data. This means being completely transparent, making customers and other stakeholders aware of what data you’re gathering and why, and giving them the chance to opt out where possible. Those companies who don’t comply with tightening regulation, or who play fast and loose with people’s data, risk serious financial and reputational blowback in the future.