Toshiba Data Corporation believes that the amount of data created from the physical world — things like factory equipment and transportation systems — will far exceed the data created in the cyber business.
The newly launched company, a part of the Toshiba Group which was set up in February, is aiming to create new value by combining physical and cyber data. Specifically, with its offerings and involvement in point-of-sales (POS) systems, industrial machinery and social infrastructure, Toshiba Data Corporation can transcribe the data from the physical world, feed it into cyberspace, and then combine the new data with already existing cyber data to create something of value.
“When data is processed, organised and presented in a given context, it becomes meaningful information that can improve our daily lives,” said Taro Shimada, CEO and representative director, Toshiba Data Corporation.
From Data 1.0 to Data 2.0
According to IDC, the volume of data will grow more than five time between 2018 to 2025, reaching an estimated 175ZB during this seven-year period.
Tshiba Data believes the explosion of physical data from IoT systems in various settings from manufacturing to transportation will be largely responsible to this huge data growth.
The company is focused on aggregating behavioural data of consumers in the physical world, and with their permission or after anonymising the data, give value created back to the consumer. Various service providers could provide different customer offerings according to the data gathered.
“An example is the 'Smart Receipt' developed by Toshiba TEC Corporation, a Smart Receipt system that digitizes paper receipts that customers would receive when they make payments at stores. Depending on how it is applied, it could even be used as a tool for regional vitalisation,” Shimada said.
Toshiba Data is mulling over delivering management support to medical institutions. By collaborating with other providers, Toshiba aims to help medical institutions to analyse patients' data and identify various pre-symptomatic diseases for health monitoring purposes. Overcoming challenges, Toshiba Data is committed to create an ecosystem where everyone can reap the benefits of data.
