Google
has made billions by indexing the world's information and selling advertisements. While numerous companies have challenged Google in advertising and information services, few have made significant inroads. As we look into the future of computing, industry analysts and vendors predict there will be over 50 billion connected devices in the next several decades. Mobile and the Internet of Things provide the foundation to deliver new contextual and personalized services with connect devices and sensors. There's one problem. Most businesses are woefully equipped to make sense of the tidal wave of data these new devices and networks are creating.
As I've interviewed companies for my upcoming Wiley book on the future of mobile and big data, I've realized that we are entering a new computing age. A company's future success will depend on its proficiency in collecting, analyzing and acting on data in near real-time. We've relied on Google to collect and rank publicly available data for many years. Today, business leaders need to aggregate internal corporate data and data from outside the organization. Increasingly, a business will also need to aggregate and analyze new data points such as location, humidity and motion. The influx of unstructured data, such as images and social networking messages, also presents challenges for existing data warehouse and analytics solutions. With such rapid change, we have to ask who will be the business data brokers of the Internet of Everything era? What companies will become the "Google-like" equivalent for business data? Google will continue to rank information and deliver services based on mobile and sensor data but other companies will emerge with enterprise solutions and specific industry vertical products.
IBM
’s latest research on Cognitive computing and Watson provide indications of where the new era of computing can go. Last week IBM announced the IBM Watson Engagement Advisor. IBM described it as a cloud-delivered services and chats that "will empower a brand's customer service agents to provide fast, data-driven answers, or sit directly in the hands of consumers via mobile device. In one simple click, the solution's "Ask Watson" feature will quickly help address customers' questions, offer feedback to guide their purchase decisions, and troubleshoot their problems.” This is the first wave of new technologies to compete with the existing Google model. Technologies like Watson will allow a company to integrate corporate and external data to deliver more meaningful services. Beyond advertising, these services can be used to create better business decisions at the point of need.
The next wave of systems is about more than categorization and ranking. The next wave of discovery systems will deliver insight. This vision isn’t without its challenges but the technology and solutions are well underway. Watson is just one example. What do you think? Can IBM be the next Google by helping companies explore and act on large volumes of data?
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