Utility operators ponder data expansion

For utility providers, keeping information secure and data quality high at has become both hugely important and very challenging as data volumes have exploded in recent years. According to Computer Weekly, data quality has been a challenge for utilities firms since before the debut of "smart" meters logging vast amounts of new data. Now, the issue has accelerated.

"At the moment we could have a meter reading every year. With smart meters, if they read every half hour, that’s 17,500 meter readings a year. When we talk about ‘exponential’ growth of data, that is really exponential," said Ovum energy tech researcher Stuart Ravens, according to the source.

IDC Energy Insights analyst Roberta Bigliani told Computer Weekly that the answer to data management questions may lie in an alliance between business and IT departments at utilities firms. She stated that such a combination could create a data management scheme with a layer meant to collate all data.

InformationWeek recently reported that CIOs may be missing out on best practices concerning big data. According to the source, industry expert Daragh O'Brien has observed many firms taking in a large amount of data, focusing on amount of information rather than its usefulness to the company or its integrity.