There's little doubt that the world is becoming increasingly complex and connected, with diverse new technology and products being developed with unprecedented frequency. As more and more parts of our lives move online – both personally and professionally – the speed at which data is being created has reached near unsustainable levels.

To effectively manage this onslaught of information, some enterprises will need to change the structure of their operations to continue to deliver an acceptable level of customer service. According to Gartner, 90 per cent of large organisations will require a dedicated chief data officer by 2019.

"Business leaders are starting to grasp the huge potential of digital business, and demanding a better return on their organisations' information assets and use of analytics," says Mario Faria, research vice president at Gartner.

"It's a logical step to create an executive position – the CDO – to handle the many opportunities and responsibilities that arise from industrial-scale collection and harnessing of data."

Turning up the volume of data

To understand why it may be important to invent a whole new position within an organisation, it helps to get a sense of just how much data creation has exploded in recent years, and what's driving that growth. Enormous quantities of information have been coming from many familiar sources for decades; however, in the digital era that we now live in, the growth is exponential.

VCloud News has broken down just how fast data has been created – stretching back as far as 1992, when 100 gigabytes were produced each day. Just five years later, that same amount was being created every hour; five years after that it was every second.

By 2013, however, the rate of data creation had reached levels that were increasingly difficult to fathom – 28,875 GB every second. By 2018, that's expected to have almost doubled again, hitting 50,000 GB per second. While much of that new information is coming from common sources – increasingly sophisticated, data-hungry mobile apps, for example – the true driver of data creation may in fact be the Internet of Things (IoT).

Everything is connected

For the first time, the world's most popular computer operating system – Microsoft Windows – is being embedded into IoT devices through the Windows 10 IoT Core platform. Optimised for smaller devices both with or without a display, the unique OS represents a giant leap towards making development for connected devices easier and more accessible.

It's difficult to gauge the impact on data creation such innovation will ultimately have. Consider it this way, however: Until recently, all of those many thousands of gigabytes being created every second have been coming from a comparatively small group of devices. Computers, smartphones and tablets, video game consoles and a handful of other pieces of equipment that were connected to our internet networks. Now, picture how quickly data creation could accelerate when it's not just coming from half a dozen sources in your home, but every single electrical appliance that you own.

The potential benefits to consumers and businesses of IoT advancement are immense. Controlling your home thermostat from a smart devices so your house is warm or cool when you return after work. A fridge that can send you a smartphone notification if it has been left open, or a smart oven that alerts you if a cooking element has been left on. Wherever there's a need, creative developers are hard at work devising connectivity features to make our lives easier and more efficient.

Coping with data demands

The vast amount of data being streamed into business systems right now is all but unsustainable, and the impending explosion in IoT technology is set to introduce a slew of fresh challenges. It's not just volume that we will have to contend with, however; the type of data itself can display huge variety. Just as the information contained in an email is unlike that within a photo uploaded to a social network, data created by your laptop is unlike that coming from your home alarm system.

Beyond volume and variety, the third challenge organisations face with regards to data is velocity. Not only must we cope with more information from any number of unique sources, it's coming at us faster than ever before, and that speed continues to increase. According to ZDNet, social networking giant Facebook can be held up as a good example. Its IT system copes with over 900 million photo uploads every day, over 10,000 unique images that it must ingest, process, file and be able to retrieve every single day.

As IoT technology continues to make its way into our lives, the faster all of this data will need to be collected and processed. Combine that with the aforementioned volume and variety, and the very idea of managing all of that information quickly becomes overwhelming.

Thankfully, tools and methodologies have been devised to not only collect large volumes of data, but to do it at high speeds from a wide variety of sources. Manual spreadsheet recording techniques are unable to keep pace with the modern digital environment, so working with consultants who are able to guide you to better data management is becoming an essential element of IT strategy.

To capture and manage data over both local and wide area networks, organisations must have adaptable IT architecture. ANATAS has experience working with companies that require the ability to perform high-volume, high-velocity and high-scale collection and streaming of data efficiently. We can develop and implement solutions to make even the most seemingly daunting tasks become intuitive and user-friendly.

Managing valuable business data is not something that most organisations can do on their own, but ANATAS can help by delivering comprehensive end-to-end solutions to drive business performance. We are in the business of solving problems and improving  processes through effective application technology, so reach out to us today, and get your data management systems up to speed to welcome the IoT.