Q+A: AI is creating a data explosion — and most businesses aren’t ready
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What is causing the data explosion in businesses today?
Welcome to Fear and Greed Q&A, where we ask and answer questions about business, investing, economics, politics and more. I'm Sean Aylmer. Artificial intelligence is driving an extraordinary surge in data creation, and with that comes a huge challenge around how businesses... store, manage and move that information efficiently. Increasingly, the conversation around AI isn't just about software or models, but the physical infrastructure needed to support it all. Today, a look at why data storage is becoming such a critical part of the AI economy. Jeff Park is ANZ Country Manager at Seagate Technology, a great supporter of this podcast. Jeff, welcome to Fear and Greed Q&A.
Thanks, Sean. It's great to be here.
Who would have thought data could become sexy?
Yeah.
How long have you been around data for?
Well, I've been fortunate enough to be with the company just over 20 years in different positions and different roles. But I've been in Australia for the last 17 plus years.
How is data storage evolving to support AI demands?
Okay. So tell us about the company. So what does Seagate do?
So Seagate is one of the world's leader in a high density storage infrastructure provider. And we provide storage requirement for enterprises, consumers in all broad spectrum of the industry.
Okay, so if we break that down, any business has data. Correct. And if you're a bank, you've got huge amounts of data. That has to sit somewhere. Correct. And when you're talking about density, I presume you mean as in dense, we're able to store a lot of data in a relatively small space. Correct. Spot? Yeah. Okay.
Why is clean and meaningful data crucial for businesses?
I'm with you so far. The next point, how do you store it? Physically, how do you store it?
Yeah. So, well, storing a data started from when men chiseled on the rock, right? Yeah. But it evolved, obviously, and has evolved significantly in the last 20 years and more so in the last five years because the demand for the data storage has been growing exponentially. Whether you realize it or not, you refer about banking, but our medical record, the kids' education is based on online. Everything is creating data. We're creating data as we're creating this podcast. And everybody is now content creator one way or another. And a lot of businesses, enterprises are relying on this enriched data to stay competitive.
And the idea then is to have kind of clean data because the cleaner the data, the more accurate it is. Is that right? Yes.
What challenges do businesses face with data management?
I like that, you know, Sean. The idea of having a large data is important, but you also want to make sure that your data is meaningful. Now, in the past, there were a lot of businesses just simply stored data as a part of a regulatory requirement. But now... With the AI, they're starting to unleash the value that's been hidden in the data. So we talk about some interesting project with the mining companies, the medical imaging institutes, they're all seeing a great benefit of having these datas that will give us a real advantage for the human race.
So when you talk about sort of unlocking that value in data, is there good data and bad data? I suppose that's what I'm trying to get to.
Yeah, well, I think it starts with you decide what data is relevant for your business or your clients or the industry you're in. So you basically have to make a filter to make sure – you store the meaningful data information. There's also those sensitivities around the privacy. Some people don't want their face to be recognized when they walk into stores. So it starts from the regulatory requirement, but also looking at the business, they look at, okay, what data is gonna give us the edge to stay competitive in the industry?
Okay.
How are data centers adapting to future needs?
And is that something that management boards are now taking much more? I mean, I'm sure they're taking much more notice of it. Do they have an understanding of what you're talking about?
The conversation has sharply changed in the last six months because only a few years ago, a lot of enterprises thought data storage is a part of IT infrastructure and it's a part of cost. But now with AI unleashing a lot of data within, people are realizing, wait, we gotta take a look at what we're storing and we gotta plan what we're gonna do with data.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is causing the data explosion in businesses today?
0:05–1:02
2
How is data storage evolving to support AI demands?
1:02–1:39
3
Why is clean and meaningful data crucial for businesses?
1:39–2:38
4
What challenges do businesses face with data management?
2:38–4:06
5
How are data centers adapting to future needs?
4:06–5:46
6
What role does data play in maintaining a competitive edge?
5:46–6:53
7
How can businesses prepare for the future of data storage?
6:53–7:55
8
What are the physical methods of storing data today?
7:55–11:12