Predictions on the state of data in 2021

Stop and think about how much data you transmit over the web in a day – visiting social media platforms, doing Google searches, checking email. Consider your job or your school work. Creating Word documents, Excel files, simple tasks like emailing co-workers or complex tasks like programming security software. Then take that amount of work and repeat it day after day after day. Just how much data is there?

According to Gil Press, for Forbes, “From 2010 to 2020, the amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed in the world increased from 1.2 trillion gigabytes to 59 trillion gigabytes, an almost 5,000% growth.”

Press looked at that past growth and predicted what the next ten years will look like in the world of data. While Press highlights a total of 54 items, we have highlighted some of the most fascinating statistics from the article. View his original article for the full list and accompanying references.

Data by the Numbers

• The amount of data created over the next three years will be more than the data created over the past 30 years
• 5 billion: the number of internet users in 2023, up from 3.9 billion in 2018
• 29.3 billion: the number of web-connected devices in 2023, up from 18.4 billion in 2018
• 222 million: the number of video streaming users in the U.S. in 2024, up from 170.5 million in 2018
• $6 trillion: the cost of cybercrime worldwide in 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015

The Pandemic Impact

• 66 percent of employed Americans agree that they would prefer a mix of in-office and remote work after the pandemic ends
• A 300 percent increase in remote work compared to pre-COVID-19 levels
• 60 percent of businesses that pivoted to virtual events will incorporate real-time/real-space experiential elements into marketing experiences by 2023

Advancing Technology

• 65 percent of medical imaging workflows by 2026 will use artificial intelligence (AI) to detect underlying disease and guide clinical intervention, while 50% will use teleradiology to share studies and improve access to radiologists
• 50 percent of CIOs will accelerate robotization, automation, and augmentation by 2024
• $110 billion: global spending on artificial intelligence (AI) in 2024, up from $50.1 billion in 2020

How We Do Business

• 60 percent of B2B sales organizations will transition from experience- and intuition-based selling to data-driven selling by 2025
• A 100 percent additional business value from analytics investments that will be realized by 2021 by organizations that offer users access to a curated catalog of internally and externally prepared data
• 20 percent of all new cars will be sold entirely online by 2025, up from less than 1% in 2020

With this explosion of data, data science fields and careers will also be in demand.  Capitol Tech offers bachelor’s degrees in analytics and data science as it specifically pertains to cybersecurity. As part of the program, students learn to apply basic data science techniques to an organization's data management challenges and security-related decision making. Many courses are available both on campus and online. To learn more about Capitol Tech’s degree programs, contact admissions@captechu.edu.