Seagate Launches New Data-Readiness Index Revealing Impact Across Four Global Industries

The global datasphere could grow to 175 zettabytes by 2025, and industries such as Financial Services, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Media and Entertainment are helping to define this new era of data growth. This is according to an IDC White Paper The Digitization of the World – From Edge to Core, sponsored by global data and storage leader Seagate Technology, which examines impending shifts to the global data model. While Healthcare currently has the smallest share of the global enterprise datasphere among key industries examined in the study, it is primed to grow the fastest, far surpassing the Media and Entertainment sector and matching the Financial Services sector by 2025. The growth reflects advancements in healthcare analytics and imaging technology, as well as the increasing amount of real-time data created in medical care.

The study, The Digitization of the World – From Edge to Core, assesses data-readiness of the four critical industries that encompass nearly half of the global enterprise datasphere. It does so by using DATCON (DATa readiness CONdition), an index that evaluates management, usage and monetization of data to help inform today’s business leaders on their level of data-readiness. Ranging from 1 (Critical) to 5 (Optimized), DATCON scores are calculated across a number of metrics, including data growth, criticality, security, investment, management, skills and C-level involvement.

DATCON: evaluating global data readiness by sector

Industries are in various states of readiness and should take action to prepare for, and capitalize on, data growth. Using the DATCON index, the study identifies the most pressing initiatives businesses must consider as they approach 2025:

● Manufacturing and Financial Services scored the best overall at 3.3 each, representing the greatest use of edge computing in the four industries, with opportunity for blockchain, analytics and AI.

● Despite its rapid growth, at 2.4, healthcare has room for improvement as well in data readiness. Survey results indicate blockchain will be important for the industry, but nearly 60 percent lack a strategy or have yet to implement any initiative.

● Media and Entertainment received the lowest DATCON score of 2.0, showing the sector ripe for advanced data technologies; particularly in data security and data management.

“We are at the beginning of an era where both data creation and data utilization are forecasted to grow rapidly over the next decade. While some industries are more prepared for digital transformation than others, all businesses need to be ready to act on a solid digital strategy in order to be successful in the data age,” said Dave Mosley, Seagate’s chief executive officer. “Data technologies are becoming central for productivity expansion, data monetization and value-creation. We are excited to be part of this transformation and be a strong supporter to enable these opportunities for the years to come.”

Enterprise out in front

The enterprise is fast becoming the world’s primary data steward in today’s connected world. The Digitization of the World study predicts that the installed bytes across the enterprise is to represent over 80 percent of total installed bytes worldwide in 2025. This trend will only continue to amplify the data protection responsibilities of companies around the world.

The cloud is the new core

Also revealed by The Digitization of the World study, almost half (49%) of the world’s stored data could reside in public cloud environments by 2025. The shift to the public cloud is largely being driven by a world filled with IoT sensors that are constantly capturing, recording, and analyzing data in business environments. With businesses looking to centralize data management and delivery, there is an increased reliance on the connectivity, performance and convenience that cloud services provide. As companies continue to pursue the cloud for increasing data processing and storage needs, cloud data centers are becoming the new enterprise data repository. In essence, the cloud is becoming the new core.

“While endpoints continue to be the primary location for data creation in the short term, the fastest growth is forecasted to happen at the core and the edge - with more data stored in the core than in the world’s endpoints by 2025. This will be particularly true for major industries as edge computing continues to be a key driver of business-critical factors and digital transformation,” said David Reinsel, senior vice president at IDC.