In the new normal economy, data underpins nearly every aspect of business
operations, from supply chains to marketing strategies to risk management. To
succeed under these new dynamics, in which speed to market is critical, global
companies must move closer to operating in real time. As such, the ability to
analyze information rapidly to inform decision-making will be essential. Emerging
developments such as in-memory analytics, in which summary data is stored in
RAM rather than databases, may help in this effort. “The important thing,” says
Stuart Taylor, managing director in the internet business solutions group at Cisco
Systems, “is what you do with all this data and how you get intelligence from it.
There is a whole level of analysis we’re just scratching the surface of.”