VIEWPOINT
NAVIGATING THE DATA DELUGE DAVIDE VILLA, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR FOR EMEAI AT WESTERN DIGITAL, ON HOW TO ADDRESS DATA STORAGE CHALLENGES IN HEALTHCARE
T
he healthcare industry has been one of the greatest beneficiaries of digital transformation in the last 12 months. Essential remote care services, critical realtime hyper-localised data in tracking pandemic trends, and the rapid rollout of a worldwide vaccine have been facilitated by digitalisation. This growing reliance on digital operations brings with it vast amounts of data – according to IDC in May 2020, more than 59 zettabytes (ZB) of data would be created, captured, copied, and consumed in the world last year alone. This sudden and exponential increased digital demand has meant that the essential data infrastructure that healthcare relies on has come under 24
CXO INSIGHT ME
SEPTEMBER 2021
enormous pressure and must handle critical data and workloads. At the same time, improvements in technology, coupled with the convergence of cutting-edge research and data analytics have created a new opportunity in healthcare. Today’s clinical workloads require storage infrastructure advancements that meet their demands and deliver fast, highquality patient outcomes. The system must be able to quickly access clinical applications, databases and deliver reports in near real-time. With requests from local hospitals, state governments and global groups such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) clamouring for models of data and forecasts, capturing and analysing such large data sets requires a storage infrastructure
that is reliable and scalable at every level. Creating data-driven, sciencebased, actionable plans is not only vital to combatting COVID-19 but also in the prediction of future pandemics. As an industry under mounting pressure, rapidly building its digital services, it is imperative that data is effectively managed and available to be utilised to its greatest effect. Futureproofing infrastructure to make the most of the use of technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) will also be a key priority. But what are the challenges facing healthcare with data storage and how can organisations solve them? Storage at the edge and in the core There is no ‘one solution fits all’ to solving data storage challenges in
