Wonders of the Data Universe

Three of my IT Services colleagues joined me on a pilgrimage to IPEXPO, Europe’s premier enterprise IT event, last week.

After a horribly early train journey and a crazy Uber experience (more about that another time) we found ourselves in the front row of the auditorium for the opening keynote. And what a mind-blowing session it was.

Professor Brian Cox shared a physicist’s take on technology. He talked about his work with CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear research, drawing parallels with challenges facing enterprise IT today. Just as CERN used technologies to reveal the underlying simplicity of the universe, IT professionals can deploy solutions to help businesses manage an ever-expanding universe of data.

The keynote provided a fascinating context for the rest of the expo, where we explored the latest technologies for cyber security, data storage and disaster recovery.

For most of the organisations we work with, data is a tier-one asset. It underpins core processes and revenue-generating activities. Developing intelligent ways to protect and maximise the potential of data is mission-critical. So, it was great to see vendors making headway in targeted solutions for sectors such as education, legal, financial services and the mid-market.

Emerging technologies are always enthralling. But it’s easy to fall into a trap of thinking ‘shiny new things’ can solve all your problems at the flick of a switch. Sadly, it’s never that simple, and investment decisions need to look at the bigger picture. Integration with legacy equipment, business forecasts, user behaviour and training all need to be factored in.

We left the expo armed with two nuggets of insight:

When you bounce a tennis ball, it doesn’t return to the same position in space, because the earth is travelling at 18km per second (thanks, Professor Cox).
Enterprise technologies are improving all the time (thanks, vendors). But expert-implementation and ongoing management are still essential to their success.