Sunday, April 8, 2007
This is just the beginning. We are going to be buried in data.
Experts estimate that more than 2.4 Billion will be spent by litigators in 2007 on electronic discovery services (reference here). While most of this business involves the indexing and presentation of email and electronic office files, we are going to be expected in the near future to work with software that handles foreign languages, audio, video, cell phone text messages, instant messages and, yes, even blog data.
What does that mean for us in the trenches? Video files for one are exponentially larger than text based documents like emails and email attachments. Processing, storage, and presentation requirements are going to need to grow accordingly. Vendors are already housing terabytes worth of data as it is. It means that as more and more information becomes discoverable--basically all Electronically Stored Information (ESI)--the more data we are expected to usher through the pipeline to bring our projects to successful completion. Be prepared and get a shovel. We are about to be buried. ¶ 7:47 PM
What does that mean for us in the trenches? Video files for one are exponentially larger than text based documents like emails and email attachments. Processing, storage, and presentation requirements are going to need to grow accordingly. Vendors are already housing terabytes worth of data as it is. It means that as more and more information becomes discoverable--basically all Electronically Stored Information (ESI)--the more data we are expected to usher through the pipeline to bring our projects to successful completion. Be prepared and get a shovel. We are about to be buried. ¶ 7:47 PM
