2012, the beginning of information explosion

BANGALORE, INDIA: Every decade, the IT industry has ushered in a new era that has fundamentally changed the way we worked and lived. The Internet has taken an entirely new shape and a tremendous surge in data transmission happened. A key aspect of this emerging situation is data growth at an unprecedented pace.

Studies indicate that the next few years will see nearly one billion people (about 20 per cent of the global population) use wireless devices. India’s Internet population alone is around 112 million as of November 2011. and it is expected to have an additional nine million by the end of January 2012. (Source: comscore)

We have witnessed an evolution in every decade of technology. With the emergence of broadband networks, ubiquity of technology, social media and rich formats, we can say that we are about to see the genesis of the ‘information explosion era’.

In the information explosion era, devices and people become content creators. People today have transformed from being mere information consumers to content producers by creating their own data on the Internet. This data in turn assumes a personal space and it has a personal character and a nature to it.

Some examples include personal blogs, websites, and social network pages among others which attract more users to comment, share and tag each other on these sites. On a parallel note, with an increase in bandwidth, video continues to emerge as the new voice. People who contribute their own videos on the Internet have been growing.

With the proliferation of inexpensive, high quality and easy to use devices, the amount of data from rich media will continue to increase dramatically. By 2012, more than nine per cent of Internet traffic will come from rich media (video, audio and photos).

The speed in which the web pages are downloaded, videos buffer and the content are retrieved from the cloud becomes extremely important in order to increase the efficiency in an organization. The speed on a particular webpage will determine the amount of traffic that particular page will draw.

Cloud computing is the next big thing. The future of the Internet and data management lies significantly in cloud computing as more and more companies will opt for cloud-based solutions. Handling and storing such cloud data remains a technology provider’s biggest challenge, in terms of infrastructure. Therefore, sustainable IT infrastructure to back and complement the growth of the cloud is essential.

For the end-user — a small or medium business (SMB) or an enterprise — there is a significant need for increased efficiency and a seamless experience. For a technology provider, it implies new opportunities and extreme demands on optimization.

Lesser lines of distinction between real and virtual world and spurt in device sales will also result in greater stress on data management techniques

Whatever said and done, one thing is clear that information needs to move at a lightning speed across people, devices and applications.

The winners in the information explosion era will be those who can streamline, standardize and automate their technology infrastructure so that they can play a significant role in taking business decisions rather than manage high volume data.  

The author is managing director of Riverbed Technology. The views and opinions expressed in this article are his own.