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Data Technology
A
n exciting and inevitable future is approaching, and it's no exaggeration to say that
the future will be fueled by data. Despite political and economic roadblocks, billions of
people around the world have gained access to the Internet. As of 2013, the estimated
number of Internet-connected mobile devices surpassed that of desktop computers
worldwide. Although the growing number of mobile computing devices is by itself
significant, consider the fact that we tend to use our smartphones a bit differently than
we do a traditional PC. Many keep phones continuously on their person and active at
all times (how many of you use your phone as an alarm clock?). Wearable computers,
although still in their infancy, are coming soon as well.
Mobile devices are becoming ubiquitous, are often tied to a user's identity, and
are always connected to the network. Yet managing and securing personal data on a
local device can be difficult; who hasn't lost data due to hardware failure? Constant
network connections enable mobile devices to off load processing and storage to cloud
services and essentially serve as a user's interface to the network itself. Off loading both
data and processing to the network also helps to enable device independence, meaning
that any device can be used to access an authenticated user's data. As many technology
thinkers have predicted, this pattern is not unlike how we consume electricity from
our wall sockets. In other words, computing is quickly becoming a utility.
The growth and adoption of technologies that contribute to this pattern of utility
computing is accelerating quickly. Massive social networks such as Facebook, Twitter,
Tumblr, and many others have shown that users are willing to spend a great deal of
time generating online content to maintain social interactions. New innovations in
all-electronic payment systems, self-driving cars, and consumer devices with always-on
network connections are also on the horizon. In order to be effective, these devices
will need to communicate with users, central servers, and each other. Data that is gen-
erated by these devices will be used for aggregation, analysis, and, ultimately, improv-
ing applications and decision making.
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