Cookies help us display personalized product recommendations and ensure you have great shopping experience.

By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
  • Analytics
    AnalyticsShow More
    sales and data analytics
    How Data Analytics Improves Lead Management and Sales Results
    9 Min Read
    data analytics and truck accident claims
    How Data Analytics Reduces Truck Accidents and Speeds Up Claims
    7 Min Read
    predictive analytics for interior designers
    Interior Designers Boost Profits with Predictive Analytics
    8 Min Read
    image fx (67)
    Improving LinkedIn Ad Strategies with Data Analytics
    9 Min Read
    big data and remote work
    Data Helps Speech-Language Pathologists Deliver Better Results
    6 Min Read
  • Big Data
  • BI
  • Exclusive
  • IT
  • Marketing
  • Software
Search
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Data Is Immortal, but Not Immune to Decay
Share
Notification
Font ResizerAa
SmartData CollectiveSmartData Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • About
  • Help
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-23 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
SmartData Collective > Big Data > Data Is Immortal, but Not Immune to Decay
Big Data

Data Is Immortal, but Not Immune to Decay

martindoyle
martindoyle
7 Min Read
SHARE

Data exists in a dangerous state of near-non existence. Few businesses would risk not having backups in place. With cloud computing becoming commonplace in enterprise, we’ve come to accept that our data will be replicated and stored in duplicate.

Contents
The Cost of DeletionThe Problem with ImmortalitySurvival of the FittestGood From BadKeeping Data Alive

Data exists in a dangerous state of near-non existence. Few businesses would risk not having backups in place. With cloud computing becoming commonplace in enterprise, we’ve come to accept that our data will be replicated and stored in duplicate.

Even data that is intentionally deleted can often be recovered. When Yahoo! purchased Geocities, nobody dreamed that it would go ahead and delete the entire archive – more than 600 gigabytes of internet history. Despite this, enthusiasts were able to quickly archive the collective work of 35 avid Geocities webmasters – an important milestone in our ability to breathe new life into data that someone else does not want.

The Cost of Deletion

Deleting data is not just a catastrophe for the user, or the business, or the system itself. Deletion of data also has a cost attached. We’ve all deleted files, essays, reports or emails by accident, and we’ve been forced to spend hours recreating what we lost.  Other consequences also make data loss costly: loss of custom, loss of reputation, or damage to a brand.

More Read

Image
Too Much Big Data, Too Few Big Ideas
How To Keep Your Data Security Knowledge Up To Date?
Zen and Mao
4 Ways To Take Big Data And SEO To The Next Level
Opportunities with Merging Microsoft Access With Big Data

Often, it is easier to harvest massive amounts of data, and create massive backups, than to be selective and economical. This means we have huge data silos just waiting to be used. That’s if they’re useful at all.

The Problem with Immortality

If data is immortal, surely we can just save it, back it up and move on? Why worry about data if it can take such good care of itself? Surely all we need to do is back it up on a regular basis?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Data may be able to replicate itself and survive certain catastrophes, and we might be capable of creating lots of copies for a relatively cheap price.

But data cannot check its own validity or keep itself error-free. And the longer you keep a piece of data, the less useful it becomes.

The rate of data decay is estimated at about 2 percent per month. That doesn’t mean a lot on paper. In real terms, industry experts suggest that almost a quarter of contacts in a regular CRM will be out of date in a year.

Our own figures suggest that 42 per cent of failed CRM projects came off the rails because of the state of the data. It’s not that businesses don’t use the systems, or fail to adopt them enthusiastically. They just expect the data to live on, untouched, without any further maintenance.

Survival of the Fittest

Just because data is safe, and immortal, and secure, that does not necessarily mean that it is worth preserving. The world’s data centres are packed with old data that could be inaccessible, corrupted, duplicated or out of date – or all of the above.

Clean data does not occur by accident. We get clean data because we invest time in making it so. That means:

  • Deduplicating records in a database so we’re sure we aren’t archiving more than one copy of the same thing
  • Checking records against other databases that have already been cleansed (for example, checking addresses against an official Royal Mail postcode database)
  • Ensuring old data is purged so that it does not ‘live forever’ and sully the database

In order to purify the database, some kind of management or intervention is required.

Good From Bad

There are three main ways to obtain clean data from a dirty database.

  1. You assign a group of staff to contact every person in the database and check their records. Unless the business is a startup, or a niche organisation, this is very unlikely to be a practical or affordable course of action
  2. You use data quality software to automatically check for matches and mistakes, using sophisticated algorithms that can check millions of lines in minutes
  3. The whole dataset can be cleansed to a third party; when data purification is outsourced to a data bureau, the business can get on with its day to day work

Whichever route you chose, you must do something about your data. Simply saving it, copying it and archiving it is not going to ensure its quality and longevity.

Keeping Data Alive

Data storage technology has come on leaps and bounds in the last five years. From stone tablets and vellum, we’ve transformed the way we record the things we think, say and do. We can store hundreds of books on a tiny memory card, smaller than a postage stamp. And archives have saved the early days of the web from obliteration, ensuring that our first attempts at web design – MIDI files and all – are given their rightful place in history.

It’s possible to manually undelete data, or delete it and start again. If data goes bad, we can trash the whole lot and purchase a list from a third party. But for the best ROI, the best conversions and the best relationships with our customers, we should aim to keep our data clean, and ensure it’s relevant and useful for years to come.

Share This Article
Facebook Pinterest LinkedIn
Share

Follow us on Facebook

Latest News

sales and data analytics
How Data Analytics Improves Lead Management and Sales Results
Analytics Big Data Exclusive
ai in marketing
How AI and Smart Platforms Improve Email Marketing
Artificial Intelligence Exclusive Marketing
AI Document Verification for Legal Firms: Importance & Top Tools
AI Document Verification for Legal Firms: Importance & Top Tools
Artificial Intelligence Exclusive
AI supply chain
AI Tools Are Strengthening Global Supply Chains
Artificial Intelligence Exclusive

Stay Connected

1.2kFollowersLike
33.7kFollowersFollow
222FollowersPin

You Might also Like

big data in banking
Big Data

5 Ways Your Retail Banks Can Use Data to Better Serve Digital Natives

9 Min Read
big data helping job seekers
Big DataExclusiveJobs

Can Big Data Help Create Resumes That Will Get You Hired?

7 Min Read

Internet: Refuge for those with psychotic leanings?

2 Min Read

Are You Asking the Right Questions with Predictive Analytics?

4 Min Read

SmartData Collective is one of the largest & trusted community covering technical content about Big Data, BI, Cloud, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, IoT & more.

ai in ecommerce
Artificial Intelligence for eCommerce: A Closer Look
Artificial Intelligence
AI and chatbots
Chatbots and SEO: How Can Chatbots Improve Your SEO Ranking?
Artificial Intelligence Chatbots Exclusive

Quick Link

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Follow US
© 2008-25 SmartData Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Go to mobile version
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?