5G is being rolled out this year. In fact, Verizon is already providing 5G services in some areas. But it’s not enough for you to buy the latest 5G phone that will “allow you to download a movie in just seconds.”
Instead, stakeholders, and especially those working in data management, should take the time to understand what this new technological shift is and what its implications may be.
Like all major technological shifts before it, 5G will not only bring amazing opportunities but also spawn different technologies. They may seem like unnecessary luxuries at first glance but that will become living necessities in a few years’ time.
How Will 5G Affect our Lives?
For starters, instead of seeing 5G as just faster internet, consider it as an updated platform whose infrastructure and data transfer capabilities will allow us to build a host of other systems on top.
You won’t be the only one using the new 5G network. 5G will prove instrumental in building IoT products and ensuring smooth, seamless connectivity between them. Wireless devices, including robots, sensors, drones, and vehicles will also rely on the network’s fast data transfer capabilities.
If you aren’t familiar with the term, IoT stands for the Internet of Things, which is connecting different devices, including wearables and your phone to the internet and having them communicate with each other.
We even expect 5G to affect how we will do business. An excellent case in point is how the new network will help both the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) industries.
Companies that operate in the over-the-top media business, content providers, and distributors such as Netflix and Hulu, will expand aggressively.
Plenty of organizations expect to get major upgrades
as soon as 5G becomes the standard.
For instance, doctors will be better able to monitor their patients remotely and even perform remote surgeries on them if need be, and cars, aside from being smarter and more autonomous, will provide the driver with better roadside assistance.
But, the technology we use in our everyday life isn’t the only thing that’s getting an upgrade. If you think we’re dealing with tons of data now, just wait for a tsunami of data about to hit the world when 5G goes mainstream. Data science and A.I. will help us learn more things, faster than ever before, and all in real-time.
Are There Any Drawbacks to Shifting to 5G?
Every time a new technology appears on the scene, it’s praised for its benefits, while we often ignore drawbacks. Let’s see what types of drawbacks 5G networks will bring.
The first issue will be that distance. Seeing as 5G should transfer an unprecedented amount of data, it relies on a high electromagnetic frequency, which not only stops the waves from passing through walls but also prevents them from traveling very far.
To counter this problem, network operators plan to increase the density of the sources of cellular transmission to ensure wider coverage. This means that you can expect more 5G towers around you.
The second problem revolves around certain health concerns some people have. In a nutshell, there is some debate on whether 5G technology could harm us given its reliance on high-frequency electromagnetic waves, which are waves with such a small wavelength that your skin absorbs them. Until plenty of research is done on the subject, no one can tell for certain what the short- and long-term effects of 5G will be on us.
What Does 5G Mean for Data Managers?
5G will enable everyone to transfer a gargantuan amount of data every second, so organizations will have to adopt new data management strategies to cope with this new technology.
One of the main tenets of the 5G technology is reliability, so data management has to take into account how to support high speeds and minimizing, if not downright eliminating, downtime.
For starters, data managers should think of new ways to manage
and store their data more efficiently than what is around
today and to forego siloed ecosystems.
- When their data is expected to move across different networks, they should cut conflicting format types.
- Also, they should try to create unified data management solutions, something akin to a consolidated, spread-out cloud-based data layer.
- This data layer will simplify matters, allowing network applications to work in a stateless fashion, which will let application instances interact with the data layer and pull out the information when needed.
- Operators will ensure reliability while allowing the network to be automated fully.
Regarding processing data, since data managers expect to be handling different data coming from different sources, they should work with a converged platform capable of supporting different aspects of data management, and they ought to make sure that their systems and applications can aggregate and analyze raw data.
One aspect that pertains to data processing is data integration, and data managers should use different data integration layers to make sure they are getting the best look possible at the bigger picture.
What Can You Do To Prepare For 5G Adoption Right Now?
If you work in data management, you’re no stranger to your job being disrupted by the introduction of new technology. You can prepare for this by adopting a far-looking perspective and think of how your organization will capitalize on this new technology in the years to come.
To begin with, review your organization’s database capabilities and determine whether your current platforms can accommodate the rapid growth that will follow. You can research different ideas to improve your system’s efficiency, including the creation of a unified data layer, as mentioned above.
Whatever you do, you just need to remember
that your end goal is to provide the end-user with the data
they need, when they need it, and without fail.
Over and above, any solution you come up with has to be scalable, which is much more feasible with stateless apps as opposed to stateful ones owing to the former’s simplicity. So, design accordingly. Finally, nowadays, data security has become a major concern, so you make sure that any solution you offer will protect the user’s privacy.
