Is DATA the new energy?

I think we should stop looking at data in the form of petabytes, zettabytes etc rather we need to have a new perspective to look at data in the form of energy. An energy which is renewable in nature and can be used in multiple forms to serve more than one purpose. An energy can be generated from multiple sources such as sun, wind, geothermal, biomass etc. in the same manner Data energy can be created from multiple sources. Data in the raw form is of no use unless it is extracted, processed and refined to make it to use. In the similar manner we need to extract and process the energy to have its maximize use.

Data uncaptured, unprocessed is a loss of energy for businesses to build insights which can help them make sound decisions. The value of the data in a business keeps on growing with the new pieces of information added. Critical insights of the business can be drawn with the right technology in place to refine your data.

Energy storage is capture of energy produced at one time for use at a later time. This is so relevant and apt if we draw an analogy for the same in terms of data. Data is also captured at a given time to make it to use at a later stages. We need huge storages to store large amount of energy and same is the case is with data. These data storages are huge in terms of processing power to manage BIG DATA. Energy storage involves converting energy from forms that are difficult to store to more conveniently or economically storable forms. The question here how we can apply the same principle for data being stored? How we constantly churn raw data from these data storages into different meaningful forms.

Unlike other energies, the biggest advantage of Data is we don’t have to worry about its depletion, we only have to worry about its refinement and extraction with the desire to improve efficiencies and make informed decisions.

Of course, lot of analogies can be drawn between energy and data for us to handle our new digital age of IoT sensors. In every ecosystem, there is a main producer of the energy and there are different levels of consumers and producers which co-exist in the system. In the digital Age of sensors and devices, we need to make devices intelligent enough to coexist as a data consumer & producer to create a meaning out of the ecosystem.

We at iView Labs are constantly thriving to create that coexistence of data energy consumer & producer.