Slowly but surely, organisations are now starting to experiment with the Internet of Things (IoT). How will this impact IT systems and connectivity? Companies will continuously collect masses of data. To collect a satisfactory and balanced volume of data (for instance geographically balanced), they may need access to other networks as well as their own. So high speed connections with other operators, like, in a carrier neutral data center, are essential.

Will the collected data be even bigger than ‘Big Data’? Nobody knows. What we do know is that organisations need flexible solutions for IoT projects. They will want the possibility to scale their storage capacity (and the rack space that goes along with it, in their favourite data center) on demand. And that’s only the beginning. They will need data warehousing solutions, as well as solutions and probably partners to analyse the collected data. And they may want to communicate with other data sources. Such as ‘open data’, offered by government organisations.

Indeed, government organisations at different levels need to offer free access to their data. Data from traffic sensors for instance, that companies as well as other government bodies may want to run against their database of, for instance, licence plates. This, again, asks for connectivity and easy access to a multitude of partners. It will take some time before all government Open Data are truly available, of course. Some government organisations are more hesitant than others to comply. And there are a lot of ongoing discussions about ownership, use, integrity, offering completely free access or rather keeping a certain level of control, etc. Open Data are here to stay however; the trend is irreversible. More and more companies offer free access to their data too. We’re all hoping that Open Data will stimulate innovation and the development of new applications. What we know for sure however, is that data centers will be needed, to store and offer safe access to Open Data if nothing else. Preferably local data centers, so that Belgian law applies. We wouldn’t want our traffic data to be in American hands, would we?

So, a bright future is ahead of anybody working in the data center industry, in network communications, in big and even bigger data, and in business analytics. We at LCL, cannot wait to see it all happen!

For more information on government Open Data click here