Digital economy is founded on data. The current trend to develop intelligent, customer-led, interactive, real-time systems requires the ability to handle and interpret vast amounts of data efficiently, quickly, and with a degree of accuracy corresponding to the requirements. This point is underlined very well by two important recent developments. The Smarter Planet initiative, supported by the IBM, envisages ‘instrumented, interconnected data systems’ where main elements of the physical environment are equipped with sensors constantly exchanging information. Secondly, the new transparency drive of the UK government will make huge data sets available to the public, creating ‘an opportunity to build innovative applications which will bring significant economic benefit’.

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