Information overload | A growing need for data storage and retrieval offers Maine a lucrative opportunity
Advice Squad is written by members of the Maine chapter of the Association for Consulting Expertise, a trade organization of 88 consultants around the state. This issue’s column is written by Ted Kern, president of SMTC/Maine of Cumberland and a strategic partner with the nation’s largest independently owned and operated telecommunications consultancy.
Decoding the human genome required several of the world’s fastest computer processors to analyze over 3 billion DNA strands. It took 10 years, beginning in 1993 and ending with the final genome mission in 2003. Today, the very same computer data-processing task can be accomplished in less than two weeks.
As the capability of digital devices soar and prices drop, many more people have access to far more powerful tools than they did just three to five years ago, with more than 5 billion cell phones and a projected 1-2 billion smart phone/mobile computing devices coming online in the next two to three years globally. The amount of information shared over the Internet will reach 667 exabytes by 2013, and the quantity of data continues to grow faster than the ability of the network to carry and properly store it. Data industry experts have confirmed that the volume of measurable data created on our planet each year is growing at a compound annual rate of more than 60%. Computer market research firm IDC predicts the amount of new measurable data created will exceed 2,000 exabytes by year-end 2012, however, the available commercial data storage space and capacity is expected to only reach 1,000 exabytes by that time. This is a serious opportunity knocking on Maine’s door.
The business of data analytics and information management was estimated to be worth more than $100 billion at the end of 2010 and expected to grow 10% or more per year for the foreseeable future. Two relatively new sources also driving large data volumes across the Internet are both cloud computing and open-source software, such as the popular customer relationship management package Salesforce.com. Many firms are finding cloud computing more cost-efficient as a measurable productivity tool to collect, store and process business applications leased via the Internet cloud, versus purchasing expensive computer hardware, servers and high-capacity storage devices to manage all the information resources in house.
Just a few years back, business intelligence was available only to the largest enterprise business customers. But of course as the price of computing and storage has dropped like a heavy stone, the technology has moved into the mainstream of the small and medium business marketplace. In the past, most corporate intelligence resided in disparate operating systems that were really silos of separate information. Now these systems are all being linked together and companies are leveraging data mining to gain a much clearer picture of the total business operation and separate the data wheat from the chaff.
Data centers in Maine
So where and how exactly do we store and retrieve all this mission-critical information these days? More importantly, what’s in it for ME? Maine has a real opportunity to position our state as one of the safest, most reliable and cost-effective places on Earth to build out large data centers to store and retrieve all this excess data flowing around our globe.
When was the last time Maine had an earthquake or tornado of any real consequence? That equals safety. Maine continues to maintain one of the best work ethics of any state in the United States. That equals a highly trainable and reliable work force. The average high-tech workers’ wages are very reasonable compared to the large tech metros in Boston and Silicon Valley. That equals cost-effectiveness.
Major gains in employment are not the primary driver here, as most successful data centers must be six sigma lean on professional staffing. However, the data storage business model can be tied into a revenue-sharing business model with several of the nation’s leading software-as-a-service providers (Microsoft, Google and Amazon) to maintain and build a sizable revenue stream for the Maine’s future. Large-scale data storage facilities have the potential to become Maine’s “data revenue lottery,” so to speak, if our business and government leaders work together to position Maine as a global resource to store and deliver large volumes of data. Creative TIF financing is a good starting point to attract the more successful data center infrastructure providers.
But please don’t just take my word for it, as our New England neighbor in Massachusetts collaborated with a leading telecommunication company headquartered in the Northeast to open a major data center that provides data, voice and Internet solutions to business-class customers nationwide in June 2010. The 92,700-square-foot facility was the first in a series of new data centers the firm plans to open over the next five years. The Andover, Mass., data center supports companies with a need for geographic data redundancy and reduced data latency, helping to meet the growing data-oriented demands of large businesses around the country, as many business applications move quickly toward the cloud.
So how many gigabytes are in an exabyte, anyway? There are 1,073,741.824 — that’s a whole lot of data to process and store in Maine.
Ted Kern can be reached at ted.kern@schooleymitchell.com. Read more Advice Squad here.
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