Data Gravity Index DGx™ shows: Europe is the global center of gravity for corporate data

Data Gravity Index DGx™ comes at a time when the world is preparing for the growth that the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 will bring. Recent research by McKinsey and the World Economic Forum¹ Industry 4.0 has the potential to be worth USD 3.7 trillion by 2025. The accelerating digital transformation, as well as its position as one of the world's most important centers for enterprise data, puts Europe in a strong position to benefit from this growth.

The DGx™ Data Gravity Index, published by Digital Realty, measures the creation, aggregation and private sharing of enterprise data across 21 metro regions. The results show that regions with strong global connectivity and a variety of data-driven industries, such as a thriving technology scene or a significant financial services sector, generate so much corporate data that they create a "data gravity" effect. This in turn attracts exponentially more data to the respective region.

Europe's preeminence in many knowledge-based industries, such as financial services and complex goods manufacturing, results in the generation of vast amounts of corporate data. Add to this the emerging data-driven industries in Europe. Both of these have resulted in the region becoming a, global "enterprise data center of gravity." According to the study, the amount of enterprise data created, aggregated and shared between European cities is the largest in the world - even surpassing North America. Europe is also expected to further extend its lead by 2024.

Dave McCrory, who coined the term Data Gravity in 2010 and led the research on the DGx™ Data Gravity Index, explains: "We have observed that Data Gravity not only attracts data, but also makes both data and services that rely on it exponentially harder to move. This helps cities with a particular industry focus, such as the financial services sector in London or the complex goods manufacturing sector in Frankfurt, to gain a huge advantage. By their nature, these cities attract businesses with similar data and services, while it becomes increasingly challenging for other businesses to build similar business opportunities elsewhere. For businesses, this is less of an advantage. Data has become an important strategic resource. Too much of it means it's harder to use and impossible to move because of data gravity, especially when new ones are constantly being created and attracted."

Europe's data advantage

London is currently the world's top-performing center for enterprise data. With a data gravity score of 167.06, it outperforms both New York (79.61) and Tokyo (80.32). This can be attributed primarily to its significant and highly interconnected financial services industry. The average data gravity score for all cities globally is 22.64 and 48.45 across Europe. In addition, four other European cities currently occupy top spots in the rankings - these are: Amsterdam, Dublin, Frankfurt and Paris.

However, it's not just the wealth of enterprise data that puts European cities at the top, but also the flow of data between them. According to the DGx™ Data Gravity Index, Europe has some of the most interconnected cities in the world. This is undoubtedly aided by regulatory ease of doing business with each other, as well as the cities' thriving financial centers. City pairs include London and Amsterdam (ranked #1 overall), Paris and London (ranked #2 overall), Frankfurt and Paris (ranked #5 overall), London and Frankfurt (ranked #6 overall), and Dublin and London (ranked #10 overall).

Quantum levels of data

Despite the tremendous benefits of having a successful data economy with strong, open data sharing with other cities, for companies, having a presence in a big data gravity city is a dubious blessing. To transform their business in the wake of digital transformation, companies are collecting more and more data, but are often overwhelmed by the sheer volume. As a result, these masses of data hinder rather than drive the company's digital transformation.

By 2024, all Forbes Global 2000 companies will have collected so much data that they will need quantum computers plus an additional 8.96 exaFLOPS of computing power and 15,635 exabytes of private data storage to use it effectively. By comparison, Oak Ridge National Labs' quantum computer, announced for 2021, will run at just 1.5 exaFLOPS.²

These unmanageable volumes of enterprise data and the severity they cause are already creating problems for businesses beyond those of their IT departments. These include:

• Limited innovation: The inability to effectively process enterprise data will slow down technological progress.
• Poor customer and employee experiences: The amount of enterprise data produced leads to ineffective management and subsequently negative customer experiences.
• Rising costs: The more enterprise data is produced, the more capital must be invested in its collection, management and processing.
• Compliance Issues: A wealth of enterprise data will result in organizational challenges related to regulatory compliance and adherence.
• Security: Large amounts of data offer external actors greater points of attack.

Munu Gandhi, vice president of Core Infrastructure Services at AON plca London-based insurance and risk management company, says that understanding data gravity - and its impact on other macro factors such as enterprise data management and regulatory development - is a megatrend that global companies are beginning to address.

"Understanding Data Gravity and its impact on our IT infrastructure are critical to our business operations. It will continue to be increasingly important as data remains the currency of the digital economy," says Gandhi.

"As businesses become more data-intensive, IT leaders are forced to find solutions to the interplay between business locations and regulatory oversight, as well as increasing complexity in compliance and data security.
"As businesses become even more data-intensive in the future, there will be a disproportionate increase in the impact on business locations, regulatory oversight, and increased complexity in compliance and data protection. It's a set of problems that IT leaders must now solve.

You can view the complete Data Gravity Index DGx™ at here download in English language.