The Data Deluge in a 5G Era and How to Manage It

There is remarkable progress being made towards the deployment of 5G, which is poised to become one of the most crucial technologies in the times to come. Driven by mobile broadband's disruptive power to transform the Indian economy by fueling innovation and catalyzing business growth, it is expected that telecom operators would pump in close to $5 billion in this new technology. This massive scale investment will not only create an environment for entrepreneurs to thrive but would also transform the economy further via tech innovations and drive further growth.

Enterprises are upping investments and making robust plans for deploying 5G to enable seamless video conferences with employees, real-time online engagement with customers, and a more efficient and connected network to run complex applications quickly. 5G will enable a world where businesses run on real-time automation, are tremendously agile, and enjoy enhanced mobility, flexibility, reliability, and security.

Although 5G promises to overcome some of the toughest problems confronting businesses while enhancing their bottom lines, it also throws up a big challenge in the form of a data deluge for enterprises to manage.

5G is touted to have 10 times the speed of 4G. As compared to 4G, it is also expected to connect 100 times more devices. With this gargantuan increase in IoT-enabled devices and gadgets, the data generated will be unprecedented across the networks— from the core to the edge.

It will be up to enterprise technology leaders to manage the various facets of data, and thereby unlock new applications from retail to manufacturing, energy management, transportation, healthcare, telemedicine, smart cities, and more.

Data lies at the very heart of the 5G opportunity and is the main source of competitive advantage. To make the most of the 5G wave, organizations must implement and maintain a data management strategy that can accommodate larger volumes of data, maintain high speeds and eliminate the risk of any downtime.

Let’s explore how enterprises can manage the various facets of this data explosion to realize the true potential that lies at the heart of 5G, and eventually fulfill the goal of creating a hyper-connected India.

I. Simplifying Data Management

It is crucial for business and technology leaders to simplify data management and protection as this not only enables cost reduction but also helps accelerate innovation. Deploying a single solution for all the data and for any purpose (recovery, backup, security, analytics, governance), regardless of where it resides can help businesses in maximizing it for growth. There are cutting-edge solutions in this category, which include global deduplication that helps in reducing costs and network bandwidth.

II. Protecting Data

With the growth in robust, rich endpoint data, there are endless opportunities for business. However, in the absence of a strong data protection strategy, this data can quickly become an expensive liability. When delivered 'as-a-service', data management can help protect endpoint and 5G data. Data protection, along with archiving and recovery with enhanced application support are critical for modern companies as they strive to bring about collaboration in an increasingly converged world.

III. Ensuring Data Portability

When enterprises are confronted with huge amounts of data, protecting it is only half the equation -– the other half being data portability. Data portability is the capability to move data from one platform or service to another. Businesses need to ensure they can immediately migrate their data when they need it, to where they need it, and without the added risk and additional cost of cloud connectors. There are technologies available that replicate big data sets into a public cloud to offer cost-effective storage at scale.

IV. Testing Recovery Readiness

Backing up data is of no use unless an enterprise is assured of its rapid recovery. Businesses, therefore, need to implement a solution that promises to automatically provision the required compute nodes and recover the big data environment in a public cloud infrastructure ensuring business continuity and flexibility. Agentless rapid recovery of data is the need of the hour.

V. Deriving Intelligence from Data

Today's cloud platforms come with powerful AI tools to act on data moved to the cloud. Without deriving actionable intelligence from the data generated from 5G, businesses won't be able to make informed decisions. Therefore, the capability to index data and identify the most appropriate data for AI capabilities is important. IT leaders will have to align with solution providers that can assist in identifying the correct data for AI to act upon.

Unlocking the 5G opportunity

India is at the forefront of transformative technology and is steadily climbing the ladder to a $1-trillion digital economy by 2025, transforming the nation into an interconnected digital hub. The union cabinet has just approved the DoT’s 5G spectrum auction for the provision of 5G services to the public and enterprises.

To fulfill India's 5G vision of a connected future, business leaders must think outside the box as to how data can be managed and protected at all times, no matter where it resides. There is a huge opportunity to comprehensively look at the data that is being collectively stored and not used. A hyperconnected India calls for a data management plan which promises 100% reliability, can accommodate the nation’s immense population of 1.40 billion people, and can chart the course for innovations the world has not even dreamed of yet.

Authored By: Anshuman Rai, Area Vice-President, India & South Asia, Commvault