Infographic Manufacturing Data Center Fast Facts: Big Data, Storage, Security & Recovery
See how your business can optimize the value of its data.
By Insight Editor / 4 Feb 2020 / Topics: Cloud Data center Cybersecurity
Have you heard the phrase, “data is the lifeblood of business”? It’s especially true in the manufacturing space where data provides insight into everything from supply order placements to quality assurance. Explore how your business can benefit from modern data center solutions and best practices.
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Big data in manufacturing
In 2017, manufacturers stored more data than any other sector (including government and retail):
- 1,072 petabytes for discrete manufacturing
- 840 petabytes for process manufacturing
- With the proliferation of IoT-enabled devices, connected devices and smart manufacturing IT, the amount of data stored in 2020 is at an all-time high.
Putting it to use
Big data provides analytics that can be used to improve factory processes, ensure quality assurance, reduce risk and boost equipment usage.
Tata Consulting Services asked manufacturers to rate the following big data benefits on a scale of one to five:
- Product quality and defects tracking — 3.37
- Supply planning — 3.34
- Manufacturing process defect tracking — 3.32
- Supplier, components and parts defect tracking — 3.11
- Supplier performance data to inform contract negotiations — 3.08
- Output forecasting — 3.03
- Increasing energy efficiency — 2.97
- Testing and simulation of new manufacturing processes — 2.88
- Support for mass-customization of manufacturing — 2.75
Data center solutions
- Primary storage = short-term retention for immediate use (usually by the CPU)
- Secondary storage = records and holds data indefinitely (usually in the form of a hard drive, solid-state drive, flash drive or data center)
- Cloud storage = third-party hosted services that support data off premises
On premises vs. cloud
On-premises
- Resources deployed in-house, customizable with implementation
- CapEx for software and server hardware
- Lower cost for maintenance and upkeep
- Requires additional on-premises security and privacy
- Requires IT staff training
- Vulnerable to physical threats
Cloud
- Data hosted by a service provider on a public, private or hybrid cloud
- OpEx for monthly charges to provider
- Lower cost for maintenance and upkeep
- Risk of publicized cloud breaches
- Easy to scale
- Protected against physical threats
Better data management
In order to continue to maximize the benefits of big data, manufacturers need to refresh their data centers/storage solution regularly.
Old vs. modern data center
Modern solutions on average have 4x higher processing capacity and occupy only 40% of the space combining on-premises solutions with the cloud.
Case study
In 2018, Insight helped a manufacturer refresh its aging data center environment with new servers. The results included:
- Improved time to market by 25%
- More efficient workloads
- Increased performance speed & reliability
- Enhanced employee productivity
Proactive data security
- 140,000 hard drives fail in the U.S. each week.
- An hour of downtime costs $8,000 for a small company, $74,000 for a medium company and $700,000 for a large enterprise.
- But 96% of businesses with a backup and disaster recovery plan fully recover operations.
5 steps to a data backup & recovery plan
- Identify threats and their impact on productivity, brand, budget, etc.
- Determine which files, devices or assets should take priority.
- Choose a backup location — the cloud, on servers, on premises or remote.
- Integrate data management software that will help you maintain visibility, make changes if needed and streamline execution in the event of a disaster.
- Test your solution for survivability against both digital (cyberbreaches) and physical (natural disasters) threats.
Sources
Cisco. (2018). A New Approach to Harnessing Manufacturing Data.
Eatel Busines. (n.d.). Five Steps to a Data Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan.
Gil, M. (2019, April 24). 10 Shocking Data Loss and Disaster Recovery Statistics. Comparitech.
Ingram Micro. (2017, Sept. 15). 5 Big Use Cases in the Manufacturing Industry.
Insight. (2018, Nov. 6). Preparing for the Future With a Data Center Refresh.
