The Business Guide to Data, Cloud Storage & Analysis

All businesses need to keep up with the times, no matter their size or profitability. It doesn’t matter if you have been running the same business steadily for 25 years—every industry small or big has been touched by digitalization.

One thing that has become central to the modern world is data. That’s right, information. Data, how it’s stored and how it’s analyzed, can make or break a business depending on how it’s harnessed. Let’s sketch out an overview of how you can use it to your advantage.

What is Data?

Data is simply information. But in the business world, it is more than that. You could describe it as facts, figures, opinions and statistics collected and analyzed to make decisions. Today, we mostly think of data as digital information that is gathered in many ways through electronic means.

When you are running a business, you can get data from your customers. You can ask them questions about themselves, their lives, habits, their experience with your product and more, when they purchase something from you. This simple information can lead to some stunning revelations about what people want and need.

But beyond getting data from customers, how does a company acquire data?

How is Data Acquired?

These days, data is bought and sold by some of the biggest companies in the world. The ethics of data sale is still hotly debated, but if you sign or click on the terms and conditions on a lot of websites, your data is being shared with them.

The companies behind the website—in many cases it’s social media—get access to information about you including your location, your age, the device you use and whatever else is available. Apart from buying data from another company, it can harvested through social media.

Furthermore, you can acquire data from open-source platforms. Open-source intelligence, or OSINT, uses publicly available information that is synthesized to make patterns. This information is put into graphs and charts that display clear information about behavior, habits, demographics, and much more.

There are some free OSINT tools, but others charge you to get access to the way they have compiled the data.

Cloud Storage

It doesn’t matter how you acquired the data, the next step is to properly store it. While you can keep data locally on hard drives and servers, you probably want to store this information—which can be precious—on the cloud. Protecting your data is pivotal.

Storing data on the cloud enables you to do a few things. One, you can keep the data off your computers and servers. For cloud storage providers, protecting their clients from malicious online actors is everything. A single data breach can make or break their reputation. So you can expect the best protection for your data by signing up for a reputed provider. The ability to store as much data as you need also leads to the opportunity to analyze it. You don’t have to worry about server space and buying expensive equipment to store data locally if you have the option of cloud storage.

Lastly, the emergent culture of remote work means that employees may need access to critical business information from wherever they work. Cloud storage allows secure access to data from anywhere in the world.

Data Analysis

The more data you have available, the more difficult it is to store and organize. It’s also the reason that you should do so. When you have your data organized, it’s easier to analyze. Data analytics is extremely vital. Depending on the size of your operation and how much data you have to work with, you can analyze it on your own or outsource this task.

Either way, with large amounts of data it is best to employ artificial intelligence (AI) to do so. AI can help you quickly analyze large sets of data accurately. It can look into every nook and cranny of the information and display the results in the form of accessible charts, graphs, and other visual aids. A lot of big companies use AI to analyze information in order to improve their business strategies.

Using Data to Better Your Business

There is seemingly no end to the ways that useful data can make your business better. Between the ability to understand your target demographics, what your customers respond to, and what could fill a demand that hasn’t been filled, data analysis can be a game changer.

The use of data can help you understand what is working and what isn’t. You can know precisely who buys your products or services and why. With its ability to enhance market research and more, there is no reason your company shouldn’t be investing in analytics and all the benefits it can provide.