Despite billions being poured into the innovation pot, projects are so often slowed down by data friction, the result of growing volumes of siloed data and multiple access requests. This means that whilst the future holds exciting new developments in technology such as automation and AI, data friction is the principal obstacle which stands in the way of truly taking advantage of these innovations.
Data is costly to store, slow to copy, difficult to move and hard to govern, and with the demand for fast access ever increasing, we see a friction developing between data operators and data consumers as the tug of war between each of their demands intensifies. Consumers use data to drive new projects and innovation, which results in more users looking for access to the data, a higher demand for faster access and an increase in access points across the company. Whilst the operators need data to run the everyday functions of their organisations, such as infrastructure, security and maintenance.
As the struggle between groups develops, their relationship suffers as a by-product of this.