{"id":19164,"date":"2017-05-18T12:23:10","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T17:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owdtnewstg.wpengine.com\/?p=19164"},"modified":"2025-09-23T08:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T13:09:10","slug":"data-is-now-more-valuable-than-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owdt.com\/article\/data-is-now-more-valuable-than-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"Data is now more valuable than oil"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h4>But this is just the beginning.<\/h4>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/325366573&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Data is the oil of the internet<\/h3>\n<p>Today, data is just like oil &#8211; a valuable commodity. The <strong>potential of digital data<\/strong> in the 21st Century is still largely untapped, comparable to the world\u2019s reserves of oil at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Most organizations\u2014from the federal government to small businesses couldn\u2019t function without <em>digital data<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But this is just the beginning. According to one estimate, the digital universe is doubling in size every two years and by 2020 is projected to reach 44 trillion gigabytes. Businesses struggling to keep up with this flood of information are investing heavily in huge data depositories and data analysis algorithms, the latter made possible by <a href=\"\/ai-based-technology-and-the-future-of-work\/\">AI-assisted machine learning<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Why so much data?<\/h3>\n<p>Increasingly powerful digital devices&#8211;including smartphones, computer-assisted cars, Internet-connected home appliances, and Fitbit devices receive and transmit staggering amounts of data. Looking into the near future, it\u2019s estimated that a fully autonomous self-driving car will generate 100 gigabytes of data a second.<\/p>\n<p>Everything we do creates a digital trail. New algorithms that track our data are continually under development, not just to improve <a class=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/242320\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">micro-level marketing<\/a> messaging, but also to boost the accuracy of disease diagnosis, refine systems maintenance, and advance customer retention rates. &#8211;In fact, data has become so important that Industrial giants like GE and Siemens now brand themselves as data management firms.<\/p>\n<h3>Data Infrastructure Drives Profits<\/h3>\n<p>By any fair assessment, IT departments and data infrastructures are revenue-driving profit centers. Sharing data about products and customers greatly expands opportunities to sell, expand one\u2019s customer base, and create new products and services.<\/p>\n<p>As big data analysis techniques improve, companies will gain a clearer understanding of emerging trends and \u2018what if\u2019 probabilities for different contingencies. Other benefits include operating cost savings, increased production, and improved safety.<\/p>\n<h3>Reliable data is indispensable to decision making<\/h3>\n<p>Big data techniques can potentially test, measure, and improve almost anything. This includes gaining insight into previously untestable propositions. For example, before investing in new product development these tools can give us a much better idea of its viability. And if something isn\u2019t working, you can get a more accurate idea of how much it would cost to fix it.<\/p>\n<p>In my next installment, I\u2019ll outline key <a href=\"\/are-todays-tech-giants-comparable-to-19th-century-industrial-monopolies\/\">differences between modern-day tech giants<\/a> like Facebook and Google when compared with the giant monopolistic industrial corporations of the early 20th century.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But this is just the beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[330],"tags":[363],"class_list":["post-19164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-marketing-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owdt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owdt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owdt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owdt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owdt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owdt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owdt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owdt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owdt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}