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Data may be everywhere, but it isn’t free. It takes a lot of work and infrastructure to turn raw data into useful insights. Research suggests that the cost of handling data is only going to increase, by as much as 50% over five years. The same source suggests that part of that cost comes from confusion — users may spend up to 40% of their time searching for data and up to 30% of their time on data cleansing. The issue here is data trust.

Has your company faced a ransomware attack yet? If not, count yourself lucky, for now. A June 2021 article in Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that ransomware will cost its victims approximately $265 billion annually by 2031. And, according to CRN, “Victims of the 10 biggest cyber and ransomware attacks of 2021 were hit with ransom demands totaling nearly $320 million.”

We all know the world is changing in profound ways. In the last few years, we’ve seen businesses, teams, and people all adapting — showing incredible resilience to keep moving forward despite the headwinds. To shed some light on what to expect in 2022 and beyond, let’s look at five major trends with regard to data. We’ve been watching these particular data trends since before the pandemic and seen them gain steam across sectors in the post-pandemic world.

When you take your car in for a repair, it’s almost inevitable that the mechanic will identify additional problems you didn’t realize you had. But there’s positive flip side to that coin — sometimes when you solve one problem, you end up unexpectedly creating solutions for other challenges—that was the case for this global automotive supplier. In 2019, this automotive supplier set a goal and created a roadmap to integrate its master data.

Sometimes it can feel like you’re stranded on a data island, scratching “SOS” in the sand in hopes of catching the eye of anyone who can rescue you. Companies everywhere are facing an explosion of data — with more data sources, more shadow IT, more people demanding access, and a growing number of business problems that can only be solved with data. As your company’s data leader, every one of those problems lands on you.

In the latest installment of the EMEA Influential Women in Data webinar series, we welcomed Shirley Collie, Chief Health Analytics Actuary at Discovery Health to discuss everything from how the pandemic has impacted working, to the opportunities within data, and the importance of intentionality.