Harnessing the information explosion

The information explosion now underway is closely linked to dramatic demographic changes worldwide. The earth's population will grow to eight billion by 2025, with increasing numbers migrating to cities, especially in developing countries. As expanding middle classes increase demands on resources, from energy and water to education and healthcare, information technology (IT) is transforming systems and services to meet the needs of generations to come.

IT can create efficiencies that vastly improve healthcare and education systems and make them more accessible. Smart meters make energy grids more efficient, and radio frequency identification systems improve logistics by tracking items at every stage of their journey. An Internet connection gives anyone the ability to access, distribute or share content, speeding the distribution of information, making it easier to organize and giving voice to ordinary people.

The volume of digital information that exists is staggering—500 billion gigabytes, equivalent to a stack of books stretching to Pluto and back ten times—but it is poised to grow much larger quickly. Just 20 percent of the world's people is online today, according to IDC. As more people gain access to mobile devices and the Internet, tap into cloud services and digitize their lives, we're at risk of being overwhelmed by data. If left unmanaged, such vast volumes of information are largely meaningless, and require storage on an enormous scale.

LiveBI

When well managed, however, digital information becomes a key to well-informed decisions and improved productivity. For example, HP Labs is working on a solution called Live Business Intelligence (BI), a unified data and analytics platform. By allowing much more powerful and sophisticated analysis of highly complex data in real time, Live BI will yield insights for transforming operational processes and customer interactions.

BRAIN

HP Labs has also developed BRAIN (Behaviorally Robust Aggregation of Information), a method of more accurately predicting behavior and improving forecasts. Powerful algorithms analyze people's past choices, assess their attitude toward risk and predict future actions. SwissCom, Switzerland's leading telecom service provider, uses BRAIN to predict which new wireless services mobile phone users will adopt. Over a nine-month period, BRAIN forecasts were an average of 27 percent closer to the actual result than standard polling. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is piloting BRAIN to assess which drugs in clinical trials will be approved and generate revenue, which in turn helps the company decide where to focus its marketing budget. See more about BRAIN here.

CeNSE

Another innovation in harnessing information is underway at HP Labs, which is developing networks of billions (and eventually trillions) of highly sensitive nanoscale sensors. These highly attuned sensors can detect minute environmental changes by mimicking human senses. Known as Central Nervous System for the Earth (CeNSE), the technology will provide real-time and archived intelligence on environmental, biological and structural changes worldwide. This information, in turn, can be used to help optimize infrastructure and even prevent disasters from occurring (see case study and HP Labs website).

Privacy

But these advances in gathering, analyzing and applying information are accompanied by challenges. Just as the Industrial Revolution gave rise to new protections of labor rights, child workers, and health and safety, the information explosion is driving new measures to protect personal privacy and data security.

According to IDC, one-third of digital information contains personal or proprietary information, a percentage forecast to grow to 45 percent by 2012.¹ As organizations gather and use sensitive information from customers, employees and other stakeholder, it increases the risk of privacy violations. Unauthorized access to data can lead to fraud, identity theft and security threats. And personal data stored on laptops and disks is at risk from hardware loss or theft.

HP is leading the way in developing policies, systems, products and services to protect privacy and keep personal data secure. Our approach is based on accountability. We create a chain of custody for all the information we handle, ensuring someone is responsible for keeping it secure at all times. HP is also deeply involved in the development of public policy in this field, as new legal frameworks become necessary to deal with problems never before encountered.

In addition, we offer solutions to help customers protect their privacy and their data, ranging from secure outsourced data processing solutions to computing products with full disk encryption. HP product designers integrate information safeguards into all new offerings, consistent with our companywide privacy standard for product and service development. Learn more about our approach to Privacy.

The information explosion will only accelerate. To keep up, companies must change the way they do business. HP is providing industry leadership by addressing emerging risks to privacy while developing new solutions to more effectively gather, apply and manage data. From enterprise-level information management innovations spearheaded by HP Labs to smart design in consumer products, HP is helping customers safely realize the full benefits of the information explosion.

1. ¹ Source: As the Economy Grows, the Digital Universe Expands. A multimedia white paper by IDC, May 2009. Sponsored by EMC. See: http://www.emc.com/collateral/demos/microsites/idc-digital-universe/iview.htm