Let’s set off on a data journey

Booking accommodation online. Purchasing a plane ticket. Completing a bank transfer. Listening to your favourite musician or composer or chatting with friends on instant messaging or a social network... Nowadays, it all seems so obvious, so natural. Sometimes we have to ask ourselves how we managed before.

But we often forget what is hidden behind these services. The answer is simple: data. 2.5 trillion bytes are generated every day. The internet of things, smartphones, online services... Many diverse sources which are continuing to increase in number. Between the moment when data is sent and when it creates value, there is a process in place - a cycle - which is generally invisible but vital for our daily activities. And I am going to talk to you about this journey today.

Happy he who like Ulysses...

Everything starts with the point of collection. This vital step must be meticulous: only the relevant data should be collected, depending on requirements. I believe that when collecting this raw material, we must meet the stringent requirement of transparency: companies must not, of course, collect data from their customers or users without their knowledge and, above all, they must clearly identify which data is collected, and why. 

Next is the departure. From The Odyssey to A voyage around the world by Bougainville, major travel journals are written over time. In the case of data, it’s a little different: it arrives at its destination in the blink of an eye.

This doesn’t mean that the journey is safe. The issue of securing flows is crucial: everything must be put in place so that data is not stolen or corrupted during its journey. This includes the network architecture, which must be natively created for security purposes, but also real-time analysis of flows, to avoid or instantly react to any malicious act.

The destination or the journey?

Next is another step of the journey where security is also vital: data storage. The highest level of rigour is required to meet security, accessibility and transparency requirements. I am sure that this is the only way to build trust.

The data journey is reaching its end... and it is here that a new path opens, with the processing and analysis phases. This is the moment when a flow is used and where it is made intelligent. This is where the service or functionality finally takes form. But it is also an opportunity for potential discoveries, where we can uncover something which we were not necessarily looking for. Didn’t some adventurers set foot in America when looking for the East Indies? This step marks the end of the journey, underlining the work completed.

As you will have seen: this journey is certainly not a long, calm river. Like any path, it can be fraught with pitfalls. It requires exploration. Sometimes going back on ourselves to start a new path. Daring to leave the predetermined route. All the stages are just as important, just as necessary. They can be designed individually, of course, but they need to be placed end-to-end. All of them - from collection to analysis, transport and storage - create value. And it is thanks to this that we provide the best final experience to the user. 

Telling you about this journey is a way for me to explain the work which takes place to allow us to use all these services which we can’t do without. Work which I see on a daily basis at Orange, which requires a huge range of skills and, above all, which goes beyond just individual expertise, including hardware, software, data analysis and security.

Each day at Orange Business Services, there are 21,000 employees supported by Orange Cyberdefense experts and R&D specialists which make these journeys possible. In the future, they will be joined by the Business & Decision teams, who will contribute their additional experiences and expertise, both in terms of data science and business intelligence, as well as the international scale of their commercial network.

This will allow us to extend the journey and to go further, together. And also to continue to help build the digital world of the future. I am sure that the future is made of data. It is up to us to make the most of it together.