• Michele Vaccaro, EMEA Presale Director at EMC


• 07.09.2015 02:06 pm

There is no doubt that big data is one of the major trends in the IT industry that has matured over the last few years. In fact, a study from EMC’s Big Data League - which looked at different sectors readiness to embrace big data – found that 60% of organisations stated that making better use of customer insights, trend data and information about their business are key to unlocking the next wave of growth in their business.

By providing the ability to collect and store enormous quantities of heterogeneous data, big data technologies, like Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems, offer the opportunity for companies to perform near real-time analysis that were unthinkable just few years ago. Financial services, energy and healthcare are just a few examples of industries where enterprises are identifying ways to implement new technologies in a valuable and profitable way allowing them to make more money, save money or meet compliance.

The financial services (FS) sector is just one industry that is using big data to predict client behaviour and enables businesses to rely on factual insight rather than intuition when making market decisions. With pressure and concerns from regulators on the quality of data through the introduction of new regulatory demands, FS organisations must not only ensure data integrity is appropriately governed, they must also use data analytics for commercial gain from different markets and to develop personalised banking products for their clients.

The FS industry is also under scrutiny to be more transparent, yet concerns over security still remain. It was recently revealed that the FS industry is the most frequent target for cybercrime, facing 300 per cent more cyber-attacks than any other sector and regulators have noted that these attacks on banks are an emerging threat that could pose a systemic risk to the sector. With the increasing amount of documentation, having Content Management tools allows for an audit trail of this activity. This is crucial for meeting compliance requirements and preparing for regulatory audits. By deploying ECM, FS organisations can access vital documentation and also lower their corporate risk. Maintaining evidence of contracts, certificates and legal content is critical in today’s security-conscious world.

Taking the right path

Thinking of big data as “just lots more enterprise data” is tempting, but it’s a serious mistake. Besides the size of big data, often larger by several orders of magnitude, big data is commonly generated outside of traditional enterprise applications. Most importantly, big data and ‘enterprise data’ applications view data under different perspectives. They also utilise data for different objectives for which they have been specifically designed.

But forward-looking predictive analytics alone will not be enough to face the challenges that the 3rd era of IT is presenting which includes the use of mobile technologies, cloud services and social as well as big data technologies. Big data powered analytics can provide a navigation system that CIOs and CEOs can refer to in order to make wiser decisions on where to go and how to get there, however these insights are unlikely to provide the vehicle that actually will take them there.

Only a well-balanced, integrated ecosystem of new technologies and renovated traditional enterprise ECM will provide the navigation and the vehicle for a safe trip to the 3^rd generation platform.