“Digital transformation was something we saw on the horizon,” says Juan Pablo Borray, Business Development Manager for Latin America at Panduit. “It’s like when email first appeared and some people didn’t think it was necessary, so they preferred to continue writing by hand and putting it on envelopes; however, in 2020, the urgent situation disrupted everything, and we had to learn new processes overnight, not by choice, since only by adopting Information Technology (IT) tools were we able to manage and understand everything from the availability of beds in a hospital, the stock of products in a store, or, in the near future, map the routes that autonomous vehicles will be able to travel to transport people or supplies.”.
 
Panduit, a manufacturer of end-to-end electrical and network infrastructure solutions for enterprise environments, participates in 5 out of every 6 Data Center projects in Mexico. Therefore, it understands that the challenge of information management is to ensure that connections are correct from end to end, and that there is a robust infrastructure through which information travels quickly and securely from the Data Center to the endpoint, whether it is a home, a bank, a department store, or a hospital.
 
Among the priority uses that data management will have for 2021 are great social challenges, such as mapping and covering vaccination routes or even the rebirth and rise of some industries.
 
FROM HEALTH TO SHOPPING
 The diagnosis of data management during 2020 highlights that the increase in digital traffic in developed countries was up to 60%, this derived from teleworking and the high consumption of online content.
 
“The pandemic also saw a noticeable increase in telemedicine, which involves receiving a medical assessment without leaving home, through video conferencing. This option prevented some healthcare systems from becoming overwhelmed and allowed people with mild cases to recover at home with an initial diagnosis. It's important to consider that a single connection involves the device, the network, and the Data Center—a trio that, when well-managed, helped hospital systems and could serve as a spearhead for vaccination campaigns in 2021. By analyzing the data, it would be possible to identify the locations and conditions of the groups of people, divided by age, who will receive the vaccine,” Borray points out.
 
Regarding business closures and the drop in sales due to the epidemiological traffic light system, Borray asserts that most small business owners hadn't included online sales in their short-term plans. Therefore, when their physical locations were forced to close, their operations and profits were disrupted. “Few anticipated the need for a customer and product database, which is now a key trend for those looking to revive their businesses, as people will continue their established habit of shopping from mobile devices,” he points out.
 
Keeping track of product inventory isn't enough; monitoring how data is stored is paramount. Panduit's figures reveal that losses for every hour an online store is down can represent up to 5% of total daily sales, even if the company has a physical store. Furthermore, it's estimated that 60% of problems in technological processes stem from failures in the physical network infrastructure, 30% from hardware issues, and 10% from software problems. "And we know this, but when a business experiences a service outage, specialists only end up checking the physical infrastructure, and that's where time and service are lost. In a retail business, it's estimated that up to $80,000 can be lost for every hour the system is down," explains Borray.
 
 
THE FORMATS CHANGE
Data centers are divided into three categories in the market. Owned data centers are the most common format for managing information, as they are designed, built, and maintained by the end user. Within this category, there are also leased data centers, which allow the client to pay for space to host their information, but on another company's infrastructure.
 
What practically everyone has access to is the cloud data center, where everything from emails, chats, and social media content is stored.
 
At the top of the list for 2021 will be the Edge format, which prioritizes speed above other factors in order to process information quickly. Its key feature is that the database must be located close to where the information is generated. “An example is Netflix*, which has a large database. If a user presses play on a movie, they want it to play quickly, and that's achieved with an Edge Data Center, with virtually real-time response times.”.
 
Edge data centers, Borray explains, will become a trend due to the arrival of 5G technology, which will demand greater speed and therefore extra security. “With the emergence and implementation of this new technology, we will be talking about scenarios where autonomous devices will be born; for example, driverless cars that will be able to follow routes simply by giving them instructions. For this, they will need access to an unlimited database of maps, for example,” he explains.
 
Edge computing will go hand in hand with smart cities and will therefore also impact the social aspects of IT. It is estimated that the 5G-edge combination will boost the Internet of Things, resulting in a hyperconnected world that will require a greater flow of data. From 2019 to 2025, edge computing is projected to grow by 54%, according to market estimates.
“Latin America is on the path to achieving smart cities; however, it is a gradual process. We must not forget that the demand for services will increase little by little, and that each advance in people's quality of life also represents a profit opportunity for companies. So the challenge will be to operate increasingly reliable and robust digital tools, such as data centers,” Borray concludes.