Market potential of Internet of Things (IoT) worth USD11 Trillion by 2025

SAS ‘Fostering Innovation Through Data’ Forum urges organizations to integrate analytic environment in business operations and processes

Emphasizing that analytics are the primary conduit to harness vast operational and monetization opportunities presented by the Internet of Things (IoT), which is estimated to reach USD11 trillion by 2025^[1], SAS, the leader in analytics, has highlighted the importance of data driven innovation at a recently concluded event in Dubai.

Attracting a wide cross-section of visitors from various industries, the forum - dubbed ‘Fostering Innovation Through Data’ - recognized that modern organization’s strategies should establish heightened analytical environments by introducing new data management systems and implementing new ways of streamlining data to optimize operational processes.

“Analytics are what gives the Internet of Things meaning - the Analytics of Things (AoT) delivers actionable insights to businesses. Applying the appropriate analytics to streaming data allows organizations to derive value and assess data for better decision making and operational governance. Improving data insights can transform products, services and processes into strategic revenue-delivering assets for companies,” said Marcel Yammine, General Manager for Gulf and Emerging Markets at SAS.

Tuba Islam, SAS Global Technology Practice, Advanced Analytics, UK, who delivered a session entitled ‘Analytics of Things (AoT): The real value in IoT’, added: “The Internet of Things provides the potential for almost limitless streaming of data and operational analytics that help business make better decision in real time. In addition, this accessibility to data affects and influences our lifestyle, as well as the way businesses are operated in the age of unheralded data explosion.”

Islam also explained how SAS’ streaming analytics solutions work to capture data from devices, analyze data through manipulating data in-motion, converge data platforms and new stream trends via in-depth and enhanced streaming models.

Meanwhile, Maria Cristina Conti, SAS Senior Analytics Solution Manager, presented a session entitled ‘Analytics in action & related concepts’, which outlined strategies to bridge the gap between IT and businesses. According to Conti, one of the main barriers for adopting analytics in business is the need to grow analytical talents within companies workforces. Conti explained that expertise can be honed by employing specific workshops to strengthen employees’ skills and empower them with the right tools to create and interpret data displays.

“Companies are now spending millions of dollars to manage the information streaming in from suppliers and customers. At SAS, we provide solutions such as interactive and visual reporting, analytical data exploration and analytical modeling,” Conti said.

AJ Coetzee, SAS Senior Business Solutions Manager, delivered a session entitled ‘Why Hadoop matters when it comes to innovation’, where he explained the importance of Hadoop – an open source framework for distributed storage and processing large sets of data on commodity hardware - in the world of data analytics. With the increase of data volume being driven by IoT enabled products and uploaded social media content, Hadoop facilitates increased data storage for exploring and analyzing data.

According to Coetzee, there are five steps in analyzing data using Hadoop including accessing, transforming, refining, integrating and delivering data. By using SAS’ LASR in-memory analytic server, users can create new Hadoop tables and deliver data to other databases and online apps.

Other speakers at the forum included Marcel Yammine, General Manager for Gulf and Emerging Markets at SAS, and Craig Stephens, Senior Business Solutions Manager, SAS South Africa, who discussed the role and significance of Innovation and Analytics.

[1] A 2014 report published by McKinsey & Company Global Institute