Data Driven Innovation Strategies: opportunities from Big Data and Data Centres

Big Data is a fast-growing global industry with growth forecasted at 26.4% CAGR to $41.5 billion by 2018 according to the IDC. Big Data is the analysis of high-volume data to uncover valuable insights and create value for business and governments, and is specifically pertinent to Smart City initiatives.

The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) investment in Southern Africa has provided the ultimate Big Data challenge and is creating opportunities to develop the industry, the high computational and analytical skills required, and establish data centre infrastructure. SKA is a collaborative international project to build the world’s largest radio telescope, with vast amounts of data to process – far exceeding the current global internet traffic. SKA is widely considered to be the next great global scientific endeavour after the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and is attracting international scientists and engineers, whilst also providing the opportunity to establish Cape Town as an international centre for big data analytic skills and data centres.

Join us as we unpack data-driven innovation strategies and the opportunities and challenges to build Big Data skills and data centres in Cape Town. While we are still confirming speakers, the potential programme includes:

• Global growth of data centres as the cornerstone of digital economy
• Economics of Data Centres for the Western Cape
• Big Data and High Performance Computing: Opportunities arising from the SKA