The useful ‘raddi’ data

There is so much data floating around in this digital age — petabytes of it. At which point they call it Big Data: information about people, places and things, some of it useful, most of it not. Large corporations have invested millions in storing, safeguarding, accessing this data, and getting the right data at the right time.

So, in the cloud-powered, connected world we live in, every transaction you make, has somebody watching — and adding a few bytes to your own personal profile, hidden in some dark corner of Cyberia. No big deal, you feel? What could one do with knowing when I wake up, where I go and what I do?

You are worth a lot
You take a cab three times a week to a particular location and the cab firm obviously is concerned only with the kilometres you have traveled. But the technology is also clever enough to understand the pattern that you travel — location, time and frequency.

The cab operator couldn’t care less about that. But a large department store, even a coffee shop sees a lot of value in knowing that you spend time in their neighbourhood regularly. Time to send you discount coupons and oh, your cab wallah just made some money selling your data.

Software giant SAP says democratisation of data will soon be a reality. During his recent visit to India, Greg McStravick, Global Head of the company's Database and Technology division said, “In the future, every byte of data, whether relevant to you or not, will be relevant to someone else, and you will make money by selling it.” The company has just rolled out a tool — SAP HANA Vora (as in voracious) — precisely for such creative uses of Big Data.

For Indian businesses then, there is a lesson in all this. Big Data can be your big news in unexpected ways. Don’t throw away the excess data you accumulate. Someone somewhere will pay good cash for it. And as we know, even raddi has a price.

IndiaTechOnline.com