When it comes to data, there are two main categories for organisation, structured & unstructured data. Structured data is well-organised, accurately formatted, easily found and processed, and is typically presented in the form of standardised text and numbers. On the flip side, unstructured data isn’t categorised in any pre-defined way and is stored in its raw, native formats (think PDF documents, audio files, or emails).
Often, organisations fail to see the bigger picture and focus singularly on structured data. From a purely practical perspective, the emphasis on structured data makes sense; it’s categorised in a uniform manner, making it easy to search through, organise, and analyse. However, it’s predicted that by 2025, 80% of worldwide data will be unstructured, meaning that organisations will only be leveraging a fraction of the information that is available to them. For your organisation to truly improve and harness the power of your internal data resources, there is a need to understand both types of data, because if you’re struggling to manage unstructured data now, the issue is only going to get worse as we moved ahead.
Pressing Issues With Unstructured Data
So why is unstructured data being ignored? There are a multitude of reasons, for instance: it’s too large, as it accounts for billions of files and is usually scattered across a number of different storage locations. It’s also often too hard to search for and too slow to move into spaces where it can be used for analysis, manipulation, or storage. Ultimately, it’s simply easy to just ignore due to inherent difficulties in analysis and use, which weighs upon the minds of managers trying to account for storage costs. With unstructured data growing exponentially, organisations are leveraging a number of emerging technologies to tackle the aforementioned roadblocks to success.
What is the Problem with Unstructured Data Growth
The biggest issue with unstructured data growth is inefficient and expensive storage. With organisations requiring storage for larger amounts of unstructured data, they might find that their systems are not capable of keeping up with the rapid speed of data growth.
For many, the first response is to buy more storage, and while that may help to address storage issues, it does not help in circumstances where data is scattered or difficult to search, access, and/or move. In addition, cloud storage is not necessarily cheaper. If unstructured data is not in the right place and your organisation does not control costs, you could potentially end up paying more than when you were storing data on premise.
How Can Businesses Improve Their Unstructured Data Management
Given that the problem that more businesses face is how to leverage significant amounts of unstructured data in a way that complies with budget, more businesses are engaging with companies that can help them take full advantage of their unstructured data in both analytics and other use cases. Komprise products help organisations tier, migrate, replicate, and analyse their unstructured data while saving money in the process – all within a single centralised touchpoint. Komprise’s Intelligent Data Management platform offers a suite of tools which allows organisations to use analytics across multiple clouds, NAS devices and data centres. With Deep Analytics Actions, it also solves the issue of moving petabytes of file data into a cloud data warehouse by speeding up time-to-value.
Whether organisations are aware of it or not, unstructured data holds untapped value when it comes to making crucial organisational decisions. With unstructured data doubling every two years, Komprise can help you take control over massive unstructured data growth while cutting costs. If your business is interested in a Komprise solution, speak to our team at IDS today.
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