We generate huge amounts of unstructured data

Fact is, we are generating huge amounts of unstructured data, that’s data that hasn’t been stored in a structured database format or following conventional data models, this could be human, or machine-generated, in text or non-textual formats, such as video, audio, and images. This data is difficult for businesses to store and manage. Studies indicate that up to 90% of all data that we generate is unstructured, so how do we deal with it?

Collect relevant data. If that means throwing some of it away, then so be it, not all data is useful or interesting but still takes up a lot of storage, so dump what is not useful in the trash. Getting rid of all unnecessary data by decluttering can greatly improve the quality of your data pre-processing.

Deduplicate it. Businesses that don’t have data quality initiatives can have as much as 30% duplicated data, think of that mass email that hits all employees with a 10MB PPT attachment that is then stored in the archive, multiply this by occurrences and data retention policies, equals a lot of storage of multiple versions of the same data. Save storage space and money by deduplicating your data.

Relegate it. Simply put, don’t treat all data the same way, by doing so you will be throwing your money away. Up to 85% of a typical business’s data can be offloaded to long-term storage. If it’s not business-critical or you access it infrequently, back it off to offline storage and save on your cloud storage costs.

Analyse and restructure it. Make your data more relevant by manipulating it, cleaning, restructuring, and organising it into a format that is suitable for analysing and visualising. This helps with making faster and more accurate business decisions and improving data quality overall.

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The unstructured data problem is not going away anytime soon, in fact, it is unlikely to go away at all. So, the question is, is it possible to manage this information in a way that you can use it for the benefit of your business? Yes, and it all starts with an effective data strategy, read more about it here.

Nexus Technology helps businesses with varying levels of analytical maturity and technical requirements, and our consultants are ready to help you build the foundations needed to grow your business.