Is 'Data is Water' a Good Metaphor? - Infostrux

Mark Cunningham joined Infostrux CEO, Goran Kimovski (Kima) for a live fireside chat. During the discussion, they covered a wide array of topics, including the history of Business Intelligence, the Data Analytics industry, and technology trends that shaped and will continue to shape the industry.

Kima: Everybody talks about “data is oil”, but perhaps ‘data is water’ is a better metaphor.

Mark: The oil metaphor gets used a lot, and for good reason. The intent behind data is oil is that it is a basic commodity, and on its own, its full value isn’t actualized. Only when we do something with it is when we derive value from it.

Where the ‘data is oil’ metaphor breaks down is on the renewability. ‘Data is water’ works a little bit better since it has this renewable concept built into it. Data comes with great responsibility. We’ve all seen the challenges with amassing all this data, but how are organizations and enterprises using that data? Are they using it for good, or are they using it for not so good?

This comes from company culture. Hopefully, as we move into the future, people are continuing to look at data as a valuable and renewable resource that we can do good with.