News & Press

Keeping your head above the rising levels of data

February 19, 2010

 
Written by Carmen Carey, CEO, CopperEye    
 

The pressure from data growth and global regulations means that SMEs are now required to store an increasingly large amount of information, while being accountable for how they manage and access the data. As a result, there has been a surge in the demand from organisations looking for new ways to manage their data to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

In recent years, market dynamics have been forcing SMEs to make transactional or event data (i.e. structured data) accessible more quickly and in greater historical depth. This is supported by research demonstrating how the amount of data that businesses store is growing.

A study conducted by IDC has shown that by 2010 the amount of information held in the world is expected to be at least six times higher than it was 2007. This is accounted for by a rise in stored data and records such as stock trades, ATM transactions, SMS messages and internet data. In addition, the adoption and expansion of technologies around the world leveraging the convergence of internet, on-line applications and mobility has caused the volume of structured data to multiply.

Traditionally, SMEs have built their IT infrastructure around a traditional ‘stack’ comprised of servers, databases, and applications. While this approach previously served as an effective technology model for organisations, coping with the proliferation of data and the costs associated with its management means that executives need to look for new and more effective approaches.

At a time when transaction volumes across nearly all industries are increasing, SMEs must fundamentally change their mindsets for capturing, storing and quickly accessing new and historical transaction data, while providing the performance and long-term retention they require to meet their business and regulatory objectives. By deploying alternative enterprise data management solutions, SMEs will be better positioned to manage and control the growth in data in their organisations. This new approach also provides companies with a faster and more cost effective solution that allows them to re-deploy existing infrastructure and database capacity elsewhere.

Compliance is one of the principle drivers underpinning the rise in data that SMEs are required to retain. Organisations are now required to store, manage, search and retrieve a greater amount of data than ever before. This, coupled with additional factors such as reduced IT budgets, means that business managers now need to consider how they respond to this challenge as the demands upon them increase by looking at new ways of managing their transactional data.

Despite the increase in legislation and regulations that companies must now adhere to, many SME managers are attempting to extend their existing IT environments to store all of the data that is required to be compliant. Rather than relying on traditional approaches to comply with data retention regulations, SMEs should be looking to implement systems that are suitable to their size and needs while leveraging the most appropriate technology to manage the data so that they are sure to achieve compliance quickly and cost-effectively while ensuring that they have the scale required to for the long-term as volumes continue to grow.

Whether the issue is data growth, compliance, supply chain management or network security, it is no longer appropriate or resourceful for organisations to keep their transactional data in expensive IT environments. It may appear to be a logical option to continue with what is in place, but it is not the best or the most cost effective solution for the short or long term.

The use of enterprise data management solutions provides a new way of storing and accessing structured data more efficiently and economically, while at the same time helping companies ensure that they comply with regulatory mandates. Now is the time for SMEs to look for approaches that are able to handle high transactions volumes and quickly search and retrieve information in a way that is more cost effective and efficient than their existing solutions.