Category Process Scale
Cloud Analytics Disruptive Innovation
Why Cloud Computing and Data Analytics Enable Digital Transformation
From the inception of the Industrial Revolution several core ingredients enabled the transformation and growth of industry. Among these core building blocks of the Industrial Revolution namely: access to risk capital, visionary entrepreneurs, available labor, technology, resources and energy. Technology and energy play a crucial role in not only growing industry but enable scale. Technology can open new markets and provide advantage through product differentiation and economies of scale. Energy is literally the fuel that scales operations.
Today technology, built from knowledge and data, is how companies compete. Energy now emerges as even more integral in scaling operations. Just as James Watt developed the first steam powered engine in 1606 commencing the Industrial Revolution, it was the access to available coal with the use of the steam powered pump, invented by Thomas Savery in 1698, that allowed greater access to coal that gave scale to industry.
Most recently, the pending transaction of Salesforce’s (CRM) acquisition of Slack (WORK) after acquiring Tableau last year serves as a reference in valuing the importance of technology is to sustaining market value. The market value of seven companies accounts for 27% of the approximately $31.6 trillion for the S&P 500. Evaluating the industry and market impact of innovative technologies can be viewed through the lens of stock valuations, particularly as it applies to mergers and acquisitions. This article reviews the companies and the technologies from the perspective of market sales opportunity and the economic impact of the technologies based on the price/performance disruption to the industry.
So why are we focusing on energy and data today? Energy, predominantly hydrocarbon fuels such as oil, natural gas and even coal is how people heat their homes and buildings, facilitate transportation, and generate electricity to run lights, computers, machines and equipment. In addition, there is substantial investment focus on the digital economy, Environmental and Social Governance (ESG), and innovative technologies. A common thread among these themes is energy and data.
Data and Energy are the pillars of the digital economy. Energy efficiency can reduce carbon emissions, thereby improve ESG sustainability initiatives. Innovative technologies around energy and data are opening new markets and processes from formulating new business models to structuring and operating businesses.
The climate imperative and investing in energy infrastructure and environmental ESGs are predicted on energy efficiency and relevant performance metrics to evaluate investment allocation decisions. Therefore, our initial emphasis begins with a background on energy consumption with focus on electric consumption trends, carbon footprint, Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, sustainability, electric grid resilience, and technologies that impact energy including Electric Vehicles (EV), energy storage, and Autonomous Driving (AD). Data technologies encompass cloud architecture, Software as a Service (SaaS), Machine Learning (ML) analytics, and the importance of data as the digital transformation gives rise to the digital economy.
Digital Economy Performance Metrics
Before we dive into the financial and competitive analysis, let’s review business models that are disruptive to the status quo. That is are innovative technologies capable of rapid scale and efficiency gains that change the economics of the market and business profitability. In addition, disruptive events, driven primarily by technology, often appear as waves as the adoption of innovative technologies expands through the market.
Mega Trends Thematic Research and Analysis
As digital transformation grows, underlying technology platforms become a core differentiator for key players. Our research reveals that current market leaders need to identify and embrace important new technologies now and adapt to the continuous emergence of new innovative platforms — often through M&A activities. In our full report, we take a look at significant technology disrupters and identify key players to watch.
Two overarching themes, data and energy, inform our approach; and our core premise that drives our innovative technology analysis is that as more commerce commences over digital platforms, more energy is consumed and more data is generated. This lens enables us to identify important emerging trends as well as obstacles to progress; while sorting out the technologies and firms most likely to emerge as winners going forward.
Importantly, our ongoing research reveals that there is also a confluence of interactivity between classes of technology that results in cross dependencies, correlation, cross pollination and scale that creates nuances within each segment. It is our implementation of data collection and analysis between segments, comprehensively addressed in our full report, which adds the insight required for confident decision making. Order your copy now.
In our full report, we identify some of the sectoral trends fueling the new digital economy and the innovative technology companies creating value in our research. Let’s break it down by sector:
Energy Storage – is the key differentiator for electric vehicles (EVs) and the end-to-end mobility solutions of the future. It also plays a vital role in energy efficiency and resiliency. Energy storage is a core technology to address energy efficiency; critical to controlling carbon emissions, grid resiliency, and providing EV charging solutions. Energy storage systems have substantial benefits for energy consumers, including: industrial, commercial, public, and households. From cost reduction to business continuity and equipment protection, proper energy management delivers significant business efficiencies. There are, however, associated high switching costs for energy storage to be considered. Our focus in our full, in-depth report includes thorough analyses of Plug Power (PLUG), Ballard (BLDP), FuelCell (FCEL), Bloom Energy (BE) and QuantumScape (QS)
Cloud Architecture – another key sector we examine, provides a very cost-effective means of providing separate layers of data storage, computing and transactional services to enterprises and agencies where reliability, scalability and availability are critical to performance and the maintenance of a competitive edge. Virtualization services enable separation of hardware and software as well as method for separating data from control planes. Innovative tools including Databricks and recent IPO Snowflake provide scale and data integration to manage cloud services and data analytics. Our focus in this niche includes Alteryx (AYX), Datadog (DDOG) Palantir (PLTR) Splunk (SPLK) C3.ai (AI) and Snowflake (SNOW).
Why Visual Data Analytics: Discovery, Innovation and Opportunities
A data analytics framework is applicable to insight discovery; provides a roadmap towards innovation; and enables capabilities that can optimize approaches to new business models and opportunities. The following paper provides examples revealing how and why to apply visual analytics for discovery, innovation and evaluating new opportunities.
Discover how waveforms and patterns are applied to science and finance, and how customer usage patterns can reveal new approaches to market micro-segmentation and persona classifications. Lastly we’ll reveal how the deployment of IoT devices across the enterprise fuels data flow in the physical world regarding the performance and conditions of business assets.
Introduction
Our theme is applying visual data analytics as a tool for discovery, innovation and evaluating market opportunities. We show how two metrics, price and volume, are able to convey insight and establish price targets for technical analysis. Why energy consumption patterns and waveforms lend themselves to understanding science and classifying human behavior. How proxy metrics can serve as measures for physical events. Why linking granular visibility into processes and the monitoring of conditions and operating performance help build an advantage in the digital economy.
Green Econometrics relies on visual analytics as a core fabric in our data analytics frameworks because visual analytics are integral to discovery, innovation and new opportunity development. Visual insights are easy to understand – allowing business objective and performance metrics to seamlessly transfer across business units. So how do we do it?