Internet of things - Markaz Research - Jun 2014

Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz”
R E S E A R C H
The Internet of Things ! Big Data
How GCC will benefit
“Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the
combustion engine,” Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice President and
Global Head of Research. Gartner
“We’re more fooled by noise than ever before, and it’s because of a
nasty phenomenon called “big data.” With big data, researchers
have brought cherry-picking to an industrial level. Modernity
provides too many variables, but too little data per variable. So the
spurious relationships grow much, much faster than real
information. In other words: Big data may mean more information,
but it also means more false information.” Nicholas Nassim Taleb
Figure 1: The Machine to Machine Communication Trend
Image Source: CNN1
The Internet of Things (IoT) is based on the premise that nearly every
object (like washing machines) can be connected to the internet, thus
facilitating machine to machine, human to machine, and machine to human
communication. The idea that any physical object can link with the internet
and communicate with other connected objects to relay information to
humans is a profound development in the evolutionary arc of the digital
age.
With 50 billion devices expected to be connected to the internet by 20202
,
companies such as GE are using the IoT to power industrial applications in
order to reduce costs and boost profitability. From small (e.g., homes) to
large systems, even as large and complex as cities, the use of IoT is fast
1
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/02/travel/london-city-airport-internet-of-things/index.html
2
Cisco Systems, Inc
June 2014
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M.R. Raghu CFA, FRM
Head of Research
+965 2224 8280
RMandagolathur@markaz.com
N.C. Karthik Ramesh
Manager - Research
+965 2224 8000 Ext: 4611
KRamesh@markaz.com
Sudhakaran Jampala
Policy Analyst
+965 2224 8000 Ext: 4613
sjampala@markaz.com
Kuwait Financial Centre
K.P.S.C. “Markaz”
P.O. Box 23444, Safat 13095,
Kuwait
Tel: +965 2224 8000
Fax: +965 2242 5828
markaz.com

MARKAZ RESEARCH
The Internet of Things ! Big Data – June 2014
Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz” 2
catching people’s imagination. Cities such as Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) have
transformed themselves through early applications of the IoT based smart
city technologies3
. As a key and active component of the world economy,
the GCC region will not be immune to the impact of the IoT wave. In the
GCC, the IoT phenomenon is expected to be fuelled by the following two
developments – the focus on developing smart cities and the creation of
hitherto unconceived of economic opportunities due to the IoT (e.g,
aspirational technology startups for the youth). One of the significant
enablers of the IoT is advances made in Big Data analytics in the recent
past.
Big Data can be defined in simple terms as volumes of data that is so large
that it is extremely difficult to process and analyse them with traditional
statistical techniques. Big Data analytics is simply the application of
sophisticated analytic techniques to such large data sets with usually real-
time information processing capabilities. Such capabilities allow for
predictive data analysis. In other words, patterns and insights can be
gleaned from data that can in turn be used for operational, strategic and
tactical purposes. For e.g., Big Data analytics on crime data can help predict
criminal hotspots, thus strengthening preventive policing capabilities. In the
Middle East, and particularly in the GCC countries, Big Data will have an
important role to play. Large corporate houses and government services in
the Middle East can use the capabilities provided by Big Data to effectively
predict customer response to product launches, target new revenue streams
through identifying patterns of emerging customer demand, detect financial
fraud in real time, etc. Across the Middle East, Big Data is being dubbed as
the “new oil” as the region moves aggressively into developing itself as a
knowledge economy zone.
The confluence of maturing technologies (sensors and Big Data) means that
IoT is expected to create an economic value of US$14.4 trillion by 20224
.
Just as the industrial revolution created new industries such as the
automotive industry, the intensification of the age of the IoT could herald
completely new economic models across the world, including the GCC. The
IoT is expected to tie in neatly with the GCC’s economic diversification push.
Since the emergence of the digital age and the era of smart devices, it has
been observed that a number of technological start-ups have appeared in
nations such as the USA. Similarly, the IoT could mark a boom time for
SMEs in the GCC, as the IoT absorption travels across various global
geographies. In whatever fashion the future might turn out, the theme that
is distinctly clear is that the IoT signifies an inflection point in the global
economic, social and digital landscape. The phenomenon will transform
governmental policies in the GCC, as well, given the pressures to respond to
the rising tide of a new digital age that empowers and informs the choices
of the people.
3
WIRED.com
4
Cisco Systems, Inc

MARKAZ RESEARCH
What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?
The IoT is based on the premise that nearly every object, from household lights and
automobiles to large industrial machines, can be connected to the internet, thus
enabling these objects to be brought to an online platform that will allow for
communication between them5
. The idea of physical objects interacting and
communicating among themselves is called as the Internet of Things (IoT). Many
critics opine that the term, the Internet of Things, is more of a catchword than a
phrase that explains the concept clearly.
In simple terms, the internet of things deals with the integration of the objects of
the physical world with the internet based virtual world6
.
The idea that any physical object can link with the internet and communicate with
other connected objects to relay information to humans is a profound development
in the evolutionary arc of the digital age7
. The phenomenon of everyday objects
connecting to the internet gives rise to the scenario of a society underpinned by an
extensive network of objects, thus aiding in sweeping automation of many tasks.
The network of things works mainly through radio frequency identification
technology or RFID. RFID chips utilise radio waves to beam information to RFID
readers, which can be connected to the internet. The IoT also makes use of
smartphones and sensors fixed in devices that facilitate machine to machine
automated communication. The schematic diagram in Figure 1 illustrates the
connected nature of the IoT age, which will transform the way people live.
Cisco predicts that by 2020, about 50 billion objects, worldwide, will be connected
to the internet, without taking into account the disruptive or force multiplying
impact of any new technologies in between. Cisco has dubbed the phenomenon of
the IoT as the Internet of Everything (IoE), given a future scenario wherein all
objects are likely to be connected to the internet. The American conglomerate,
General Electric (GE), is advancing the cause of the IoT in terms of industrial
applications, and is calling the phenomenon as the Industrial Internet. The following
image illustrates how the application of the IoT (or Industrial Internet in GE
parlance) can transform the wind energy industry.
5
TechMedia Network
6
SAP
7
CNN
The idea of physical
objects interacting and
communicating among
themselves is called as
the Internet of Things
(IoT).
Cisco has dubbed the
phenomenon of the IoT as
the Internet of Everything
(IoE), given a future
scenario wherein all
objects are likely to be
connected to the internet.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
Figure 2: Example of Industrial Internet in Action
Image Source: GE8
One of the significant enablers of the IoT is advances in Big Data analytics in the
recent past. Big Data can be defined in simple terms as massive volumes of data
(structured and unstructured) that is so large that it is extremely difficult and
inefficient to process and analyse them with traditional statistical techniques9
. Big
Data analytics is simply the application of sophisticated analytic techniques to such
large data sets with usually real-time information processing capabilities10
. In
summary, the age of the IoT means that it is the harbinger to a future wherein
machines become conscious elements in the human lifestyle ecosystem. This
promises great benefits, both in the business and the personal spheres; and carries
the seeds for potential threats in terms of disruption in machine performance due to
malicious activities. In whatever fashion the future might turn out, the theme that is
distinctly clear is that the IoT signifies an inflection point in humanity’s digital
history.
8
http://gigaom.com/2013/10/08/will-industrial-internet-create-more-jobs-ge-thinks-yes/
9
SAS
10
Social Media Today LLC
One of the significant
enablers of the IoT is
advances in Big Data
analytics in the recent
past.
In whatever fashion the
future might turn out, the
theme that is distinctly
clear is that the IoT
signifies an inflection point
in humanity’s digital
history.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
The Internet of Things and the Coming Global Economic
Change
The next wave of global innovation is expected to be driven by the IoT11
. The IoT
heralds the age of the thinking machines, powered by the communicative
capabilities of the internet12
. The real world applications of the IoT appear
seemingly limitless. For e.g., a washing machine fitted with sensors can detect that
a bearing is wearing out and can send a warning to a service centre. A technician is
dispatched from the service centre with exactly the component required, thus
saving several trips for the service centre13
. No sector is likely to be left untouched
by the revolution of IoT, which is powered by data and analytics that are supported
by Big Data capabilities. For instance, devices such as Fitbits that transmit data on
physical exercise of the wearer, heart rate, calorie intake, etc, are already capable
of sending the data into the cloud environment for analysis14
. The analysis can aid
in predictive healthcare.
In essence, the IoT is a network of physical objects, which contain embedded
technologies such as sensors15
. These technologies allow the objects to sense,
communicate and interact with their external environment (e.g., other physical
objects) or their own internal states (e.g., subcomponents within the machine,
itself). In other words, the IoT includes hardware (i.e., the things themselves), the
networked communication services and the information (or data) services with
respect to the things. According to the technology research firm, Gartner Inc, IoT
would grow to about 26 billion units in terms of installed base by 2020, which is a
30-fold increase compared to 0.9 billion such objects in 2009. The promise of IoT is
expected to be so deep that over the coming decade, the private and the public
sector is expected to enjoy cost savings and additional profits amounting to an
estimated US$19 trillion, globally16
.
In the world of Big Data and the IoT, data is the new oil17
. The promise of IoT rests
on the premise that if data can be shared properly across a full ecosystem and
made available in areas where analytics are most effective and useful, then it will
transform the way people live, learn, work, and play. The technologies and concepts
of the internet, intelligent machines, Big Data and analytics have matured together
and have become a confluence leading to effect machine to machine and machine
to human (and vice versa) communicative capabilities18
.
11
ft.com
12
The Economist Newspaper
13
14
Columbia Daily Tribune
15
Business Standard Ltd
16
ft.com
17
Cisco Systems, Inc
18
GE
The real world
applications of the IoT
appear seemingly
limitless.
In the world of Big Data
and the IoT, data is the
new oil

MARKAZ RESEARCH
Figure 3: Data Loop of IoT, Industrial Internet Example
Image Source: General Electric19
The IoT connects wireless networks of tagged things or objects as varied as
clothing, automotive components, medical devices, packaging and appliances. The
arrival of the age of the IoT means that big data has got much bigger in terms of
leading to solutions from analysis. The rise of a breed of intelligent machines is
predicated to the concept of the IoT, and is the next growth wave in terms of
combining the IoT and analytics to establishing a living ecosystem of machines.
Many global companies see transformative potential in the IoT, which is
interchangeably also called as the Internet of Everything (IoE). In December 2013,
several leading global industrial companies such as Panasonic, LG Electronics,
Sharp, Haier, etc, created a nonprofit consortium called the AllSeen Alliance to
advance the cause of the IoE20
. The industrial application of IoT has encouraged GE
to coin the term called Industrial Internet for the phenomenon of intelligent
machines, armed with data analytics, driving profitability and cost savings21
.
A recent report by GE found that small improvements, by as little as 1%, in
productivity through enablers such as reduction in downtime and predictive
maintenance, will produce massive system-wide savings22
. The following illustration
depicts the effect of potential 1% savings studied across different industry sectors,
according to GE estimates.
19
Industrial Internet: Pushing the Boundaries of Minds and Machines, Peter C. Evans and Marco Annunziata (GE); 2012, pg10
20
AllSeen Alliance, Inc.
21
GE
22 22
Industrial Internet: Pushing the Boundaries of Minds and Machines, Peter C. Evans and Marco Annunziata (GE); 2012
The IoT connects wireless
networks of tagged things
or objects as varied as
clothing, automotive
components, medical
devices, packaging and
appliances.
A recent report by GE
found that small
improvements, by as little
as 1%, in productivity
through enablers such as
reduction in downtime
and predictive
maintenance, will produce
massive system-wide
savings

MARKAZ RESEARCH
Figure 4: The Impact of Waste Reduction by 1% in Producing Savings
Image Source: General Electric23
The breadth of the power of the IoE in terms of economic potential is being
analysed by many companies and institutions. Several current applications and trials
depict a picture wherein IoE will be a key guiding force behind human productivity
and innovative industrial solutions. For e.g., HP Labs runs a project called Central
Nervous System for the Earth (CeNSE)24
, which consists of developing an intelligent
network of billions or trillions of nanoscale sensors and actuators embedded in the
machine and nature environment25
. The sensors are envisaged as connected via an
array of networks armed with computing systems and software to allow exchange
of information among analytical engines, data storage systems and final information
users. The sensors are expected to turn the planet into a virtual smart ecosystem,
wherein everything – humans, machines and nature – are interconnected into a
global grid for powering a better quality of life for everyone26
. In 2010, the CeNSE
project announced its first commercial application, in terms of collaboration with
Royal Dutch Shell to help the oil giant uncover new sources of energy without
drilling unnecessary, environmentally harmful and commercially expensive
prospecting wells27
. According to a press announcement by HP in March 2011, Shell
and HP are collaborating in order to develop a wireless sensing system that will
acquire very high-resolution earth seismic data, which will in turn be analysed to
detect reservoirs in an environmentally sustainable and monetarily optimum
fashion28
.
In early 2009, the American space agency, NASA, and Cisco Systems, announced a
partnership to develop an internet based global climate monitoring platform called
the "Planetary Skin"29
. The objective of the project is to capture, collect, analyse
and report data from sensors around the globe to detect patterns in worldwide
climate change. Moreover, the programme will help in managing energy and natural
23
http://ge.geglobalresearch.com/technologies/software-sciences-analytics/reducing-waste-through-the-power-of-1/
24
Hewlett-Packard Company
25
26
MarketWatch, Inc.
27
28
29
NASA
Several current
applications and trials
depict a picture wherein
IoE will be a key guiding
force behind human
productivity and
innovative industrial
solutions.
In early 2009, the
American space agency,
NASA, and Cisco Systems,
announced a partnership
to develop an internet
based global climate
monitoring platform called
the "Planetary Skin"

MARKAZ RESEARCH
resources better by converting raw data into insightful information that can aid
policy decisions. Corporations are making a push towards encouraging adoption of
IoT technology in generic consumer applications, as well. At the Consumer
Electronics Show 2014 (CES 2014) in Las Vegas (USA), Intel unveiled several
initiatives and products on the concept of IoT enabled wearable technology30
.
Companies such as Intel are vying to convince the general public that IoT based
products are suitable for solving tangible real world problems.
At the CES 2014, a French company called Kolibree unveiled the world’s first app-
enabled sensor connected toothbrush, which analyses brushing habits and passes
information to a smartphone app for effectiveness monitoring31
. The Kolibree
toothbrush is touted as the world’s first smart toothbrush and is tentatively priced at
US$10032
. Though such smart products may require some acclimatization in the
minds of the people before mass adoption and may in fact be expensive, many
corporations feel that IoT products are the future33
. However, there are likely to be
challenges in promoting large scale customer adoption. In a survey conducted by
Forrester Research in 2013, 53% of the American consumers surveyed expressed
disinclination towards appliances that could be used to track and regulate personal
behavior. Moreover, privacy concerns and the threat of technological disruptions
through malicious incidences such as hacking loom large, too, in the case of
consumer appliances belonging to the realm of intimate user contact34
. Thus, the
IoT is likely to be welcomed and used more voraciously in the context of impersonal
industrial applications (echoing GE’s Industrial Internet concept), rather than at the
level of private use consumer or home products, at least in the short term.
The idea of IoT in industrial applications involves placing different varieties of
sensors across machines and environments where they are hosted, so as to
remotely monitor performance with the end objective of maximizing profitability35
.
GE, one of the early proponents of the IoT for industrial application, or Industrial
Internet in the company’s parlance, introduced 10 industrial IoT products in 2012,
earning the company US$290 million in revenues36
. One of the GE IoT customer
stories is TransCanada Corp., which deployed GE’s Industrial Internet hardware and
software when the decision to overhaul the largest power plant in New York City
(USA), the Ravenswood Generating Station, was taken. Jettisoning the option of
spending massive amounts of money on new equipment, TransCanada networked
data sensors to software and commenced gathering and analyzing critical data that
govern the industrial performance of the largest gas turbine in the plant.
TransCanada found that real-time and interactive data based monitoring and
operational governance of the turbine helped in optimum performance, resulting in
lowered fuel costs for the same amount of power generation. This led to cheaper
and cleaner energy, as well. Output increased by 5% for the turbine after the
commissioning into service of GE’s Industrial Internet solution. The 5% translates
into power for 10,000 households in New York City, which makes the solution very
useful for TransCanada.
30
ft.com
31
NDTV.com
32
Daily Mail (Associated Newspapers Ltd)
33
The Wall Street Journal
34
Washington Post
35
The New York Times
36
GE
In a survey conducted by
Forrester Research in
2013, 53% of the
American consumers
surveyed expressed
disinclination towards
appliances that could be
used to track and regulate
personal behavior.
The idea of IoT in
industrial applications
involves placing different
varieties of sensors across
machines and
environments where they
are hosted.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
The potentialities that IoT represents are so vast that the current use cases are
dubbed as just “the tip of the iceberg” by industry experts. Major public installations
such as airports and rail networks can benefit from the possibilities of exponential
efficiencies that IoT can offer. For e.g., in March 2013, the London City Airport
(LCY) secured funding from the UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB) in order to
demonstrate the benefits of IoT in the LCY operational environment37
. Some of the
key features that will be experimented upon and studied are passenger movement
effectiveness through the airport environment, measurement of journey times,
nuances of airport retail, food pre-ordering, baggage and airport asset tracking, etc.
The demonstrator project commenced at LCY in April 2013 and is expected to be
finished by March 2014. The demonstrator uses the Urban Operating System
technology from Living PlanIT and a consortium of companies are involved including
IBM, Milligan, Cisco and several SMEs from the technology space.
One of the key areas for real-world IoE application is in the theme of Smart Cities. A
Smart City utilized intelligent technology to improve quality of life in urban
environments. Cities can use the Big Data arriving in from numerous sensors,
spread and embedded across the urban environment, to reduce costs, measure the
usage of domestic water accurately, manage urban transportation routes and
minimize wastage. IoE has so deeply stirred the thinking around Smart Cities that
market estimates vary widely on the concept. An estimate put the Smart Cities
market, globally, at about US$400 billion by 202038
; while some other puts it at
US$3.3 trillion by 202539
. Global corporations such as IBM are making a hard sell on
the concept of Smart Cities. With 75% of the global population projected to live in
urban centres by 2050, the concept of Smart Cities is gaining in acceptance among
policy and governmental planners40
.
Within the emerging case studies on Smart Cities, Rio de Janeiro’s (Brazil)
centralized operations centre, built by IBM, is seen as a pioneering effort41
. The
system integrates data from some 30 urban agencies under a single roof. The
operations centre is credited with making the city smart. When a building collapsed
in Rio de Janeiro in January 2012, the operations centre coordinated the emergency
response for the tragedy, as streets were closed swiftly, ambulances were
dispatched and hospitals were alerted. Twitter feeds from the operations centre
alerted numerous followers about closed streets and substitute routes. The
capabilities to respond to crisis proved to be much enhanced due to the creation of
a smart operations centre. Elsewhere, in Barcelona (Spain), the city was able to
produce cost savings of US$3.1 billion per year by using sensors in parking meters
and public water pipers to enable operational efficiency42
.
According to Cisco, the IoT (or IoE) market could create US$4.6 trillion in value for
organisations in the public sector, worldwide, over the coming decade43
. The
economic windfall opportunity is predicted on the enhanced capabilities of
governments to save massive amounts of money, generate new sources of income
without increasing taxes, improve employee productivity and enhance benefits for
37
London City Airport
38
GOV.UK
39
Gulf Business (Motivate Publishing)
40
The New York Times
41
The New York Times
42
Washington Post
43
Cisco Systems, Inc
One of the key areas for
real-world IoE application
is in the theme of Smart
Cities.
With 75% of the global
population projected to
live in urban centres by
2050, the concept of
Smart Cities is gaining in
acceptance among policy
and governmental
planners.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
citizens. Also, across the world, many companies are attempting to showcase
themselves as pioneers in the IoT field, in order to take advantage of emerging
opportunities. The German company, Bosch, set a new company (in December
2013) called the Bosch Connected Devices and Solutions in order to cater to the IoT
market44
. The company expects over six billion things to be connected to the
internet by 2015. Also, in October 2013, a memorandum of understanding was
signed by a group of companies comprising – Bosch, ABB, LG, and Cisco – in order
to form a consortium to offer an open standard software platform for the smart
homes market45
. The key aim of the consortium is to develop a common software
language that would permit appliances manufactured by different companies to
communicate with each other. Thus, interoperability between services of different
providers can be ensured. If the consortium is successful in its goal, then, in the
future, an individual buying a new washing machine, heating system, refrigerator or
any other type of electrical appliance that features the consortium's compatibility
certificate can expect the appliance purchased to be able to interact and work in
tandem with appliances from other manufacturers within the smart home
ecosystem.
As multiple global corporations drive the agenda of smart homes and smart cities,
the value creation in terms of money through deployment of "killer apps" is
tremendous46
. Moving up the scale of evolutionary thought and applications, the
catalyst for smart cities (and even nations) come from the confluence of three
technology-enabled themes, which are the growth of the networked economy,
dependence on the cloud, and the explosion of mobile smart devices. The
confluence of several maturing technologies and applications has meant that
through the combination of lower costs and increased revenues, IoE is expected to
create an economic value of US$14.4 trillion by 2022, according to Cisco47
. The five
main factors that will account for the US$14.4 trillion are as follows.
Figure 5: Splitting the IoE Economic Potential among Contributing Factors
Source: Cisco Systems, Inc.
44
Bosch
45
Bosch
46
Cisco Systems, Inc
47
Cisco Systems, Inc
3.7
3.0
2.7
2.5
2.5
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
Customer Acquisition
Innovation (Lowering Time to Market)
Supply chain and Logistics (Waste Elimination)
Asset Utilization (Cost Reduction)
Employee Productivity
In US$ Trillion
Also, across the world,
many companies are
attempting to showcase
themselves as pioneers in
the IoT field, in order to
take advantage of
emerging opportunities.
As multiple global
corporations drive the
agenda of smart homes
and smart cities, the value
creation in terms of
money through
deployment of "killer
apps" is tremendous

MARKAZ RESEARCH
Beyond the concept of Smart Cities, the benefits of IoT is expected to influence
governmental policies and decisions at every level, due to the following
potentialities48
--
 State agencies can realise upto US$682 billion in monetary value by
applying IoT solutions to applications such as disease management, bridge
maintenance, connecting transport infrastructure, etc.
 Governmental agencies related to the non-defense sphere can reap value of
up to $472 billion through solutions to better fleet management, disaster
response, cybersecurity, etc.
 Defense forces, worldwide, can enhance the effectiveness of their military
tasks through information sharing and secure connections. Improved
connectivity among defense forces has the potential to generate US$1.5
trillion in monetary value.
In the area of Smart Cities, the following decade may be a defining one in terms of
proving the breadth and depth of applications and their tangible benefits. A number
of Smart City initiatives are very likely as more success stories (e.g., Singapore49
)
percolate. Yet, there are sluggish success examples in Smart City attempts, too.
Two cases that are cited are Masdar (the UAE) and Songdo (South Korea)50
. Masdar
city was conceived as a showcase of urban initiatives that can be run on renewable
energy51
. With the agenda of economic diversification and reducing dependence on
oil, the Masdar city was commissioned by Abu Dhabi (the UAE). Masdar city, though
still a proof of concept practically, is a city run by sensors. The city is expected to
act as a magnet for further interest and development of green cities in the UAE.
However, Masdar is a case of a greenfield city. So is Songdo in South Korea, which
is seen as a practical implementation of the revolutionary idea of cities as “living
organisms”52
. Built on land reclaimed from the Yellow Sea, Songdo is expected to
be completed by 2015 and is touted as the world’s first smart city53
. With
urbanization spreading at a rapid pace throughout the world, the cities of the future
will be smart, with a value architecture that will redefine how humans will interact
with their urban environments.
48
Cisco Systems, Inc
49
50
Guardian News and Media Limited
51
www.nationmultimedia.com
52
www.businessdestinations.com
53
BBC
State agencies can realise
upto US$682 billion in
monetary value by
applying IoT solutions to
applications such as
disease management,
bridge maintenance,
connecting transport
infrastructure, etc.
With urbanization
spreading at a rapid pace
throughout the world, the
cities of the future will be
smart, with a value
architecture that will
redefine how humans will
interact with their urban
environments.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
Figure 6: Value Architecture of Future Smart Cities
Image Source: IDC Government Insights, 201354
As the technology of IoT evolves and gains new enthusiasts and detractors, there is
a growing sense of both the benefits and the perils that could be imminent in the
sweeping digital age55
. As more and more objects get networked, it brings in the
capability for precise automation. Home life with a plethora of intelligent machines
will push convenience into a complete new orbit. Manufacturers can improve
logistics, boost productivity and reduce waste. Urban authorities can monitor
congestion and generate smart road benefits, with trash cans automatically
informing municipal workers when they reach their limits. However, detractors warn
of the ill consequences of any ignorance or denial of dangers while enmeshed in the
excitement and potentialities of new digital capabilities.
Like any other technology, the digital technology of smart sensors can undergo
malfunction. If sensors regulate every intimate user appliance, including wearable
technologies and personal hygiene products (smart toothbrushes), the
consequences of malfunction can be devastating and traumatic. Also, the risk of
privacy invasion and network security will take centre stage. The ability to manage
the intersection of privacy and security with the tremendous conveniences provided
by IoT is expected to be a great challenge of the internet enabled personalised
digital age56
. As IoT devices get installed through individual and family living spaces,
worn on bodies and enter personal spaces where technology had hitherto not
breached, there are bound to be concerns on what happens with the data that the
smart appliances gather.
The issue can be compounded by the fact that most purveyors of smart city
technologies or personal appliances are not major players in the area of warding of
online risks or intrusions. Moreover, surveys on customer behaviors have indicated
that most customers do not follow up on downloading security patches with
systematic and needed regularity57
. This provides immense opportunities for
malicious behavior from deviant hackers and sophisticated online criminals. There
54
http://www.urenio.org/2013/11/04/idc-white-paper-smart-cities-internet-things/
55
Bloomberg
56
BBC
57
WIRED.com
As the technology of IoT
evolves and gains new
enthusiasts and
detractors, there is a
growing sense of both the
benefits and the perils
that could be imminent in
the sweeping digital age
Like any other technology,
the digital technology of
smart sensors can
undergo malfunction.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
are indications of this already happening with existing smart devices, such as using
flaws in electronic smart locks to break easily into properties of others, etc58
. Also,
there is the tendency among companies manufacturing smart technologies to copy
all consumer data to their corporate cloud59
. This can raise uncertainties in the
minds of consumers as to what corporates are doing with the intimate personal data
being collected. Already, 2013 proved to be a breakout year on the issue of
personal privacy, as domestic (US) and international furore erupted on allegations
that the American National Security Agency (NSA) was monitoring internet and
telephonic traffic for collecting information60
. With 2014 predicted to be a pivotal
and transformative year for IoT, the issue of privacy and security is likely to gain in
prominence and urgency, impacting corporate and consumer behavior across the
spectrum.
As various sectors and industries intertwine to share data and provide ambient
services to enhance convenience, the security of the cyber layer is increasingly
difficult to demarcate and secure. For e.g., transportation meshes with
telecommunications and food distribution, and these in turn are underpinned by the
energy and finance sectors61
. The nodes and touch points are exponentially
interbreeding and increasing, leading to critical choke points across possibly
previously unconceived of locations. Google’s US$3.2 billion January 2014
acquisition announcement of Nest, manufacturers of IoT based home safety items
such as smoke detectors, underlines the importance of the industry in vivid terms.
IoT and the GCC
The IoT, along with Big Data, is proving to be a global phenomenon. As a key and
active component of the world economy, the GCC region will not be immune to the
impact of the IoT wave. In the GCC, the IoT phenomenon is expected to be fuelled
by the following two developments, mainly –
Focus on developing smart cities: In the GCC, the trend of linking smart cities
to the agenda of economic diversification is fast gaining ground, led by the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Saudi Arabia estimates that its new economic cities
will contribute about US$150 billion to the country's GDP by 2020, creating some
one million jobs in the process62
. Smart cities are looked upon as opportunities to
diversify the economy away from oil, creating a knowledge economy and offering
citizens with opportunities for professional jobs.
In October 2013, the UAE announced plans to transform itself into a smart city63
.
The Dubai smart city project would allow the public to deal with government
agencies and services using smart phones. The backbone of the Dubai smart city
effort will be high-speed wireless internet and fibre optic networks. With initiatives
such as the smart city strategy, Dubai could potentially create 27,000 jobs between
2013 and 2018, apart from generating economic value of about US$5.5 billion64
.
58
Bloomberg
59
BBC
60
ITworld
61
Chatham House
62
Cisco Systems, Inc
63
Arabian Business Publishing Ltd.
64
Al Nisr Publishing LLC
With 2014 predicted to be
a pivotal and
transformative year for
IoT, the issue of privacy
and security is likely to
gain in prominence and
urgency, impacting
corporate and consumer
behavior across the
spectrum.
As a key and active
component of the world
economy, the GCC region
will not be immune to the
impact of the IoT wave.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
The Dubai smart city project runs principally along three tracks, namely – Smart
Economy; Smart Life; and Smart Tourism. Smart Economy deals with developing
efficient and effective private companies, government services such as ports, stock
exchanges, and jobs, through the use of IoT. Smart Life deals with education,
health, communications, public utilities, transport, and energy services. Finally,
Smart Tourism deals with offering a convenient and smart environment to tourists
on their visit to Dubai. Sensors and devices will be used extensively across the three
themes of smart life in Dubai, thus pushing the entire GCC region into a new orbit
of technology based economic initiatives that are in close contact with public life
(e.g., regulating parking lots)65
.
Apart from the economic cities initiative in Saudi Arabia and the projects in the UAE,
there are smart city projects in Qatar, too. According to the technology research
firm, IDC, spending on smart machines in countries across GCC is expected to reach
US$224 million, a year-on-year increase of 19%.
Creative disruption spawns new markets: In many ways, the intersection of
intelligent machines, people and advanced analytics is unleashing creative
disruption across multiple industries. With the arrival of the internet age, many
industries underwent disruption, such as the newspaper industry. However, just as
the industrial revolution created new industries such as the automotive industry, the
intensification of the age of the IoT could herald completely new economic models.
With Gartner projecting the IoT market to be US$1.9 trillion by 2020, a slew of
industries, such as healthcare and transportation, are expected to see revolutionary
developments. With this opportunity, comes the possibility that a number of
technological and services SMEs could arise around the economic revolution. The
ability to stay connected to the world of commerce through smart appliances may
translate into a strong incentive for people to run their careers effectively from
home. Segments of the population such as the differently abled could benefit
greatly from such arrangements and may be able to increase their level of active
contribution to the national economy, thereby adding to the prosperity of the
nation.
Since the emergence of the digital age and the era of smart devices, it has been
observed that a number of technological start-ups have appeared in nations such as
the USA. The IoT could mark a boom time for SMEs in the GCC. The importance of
SMEs in GCC is manifold due to their power to add to non-oil revenues and due to
their ability to create attractive jobs for a young population66
.
Assuming GE’s logic that the IoT age can at least herald a cost savings of 1% across
major industries, the following cost savings are estimated on an annual basis for the
GCC region.
65
Zawya
66
Arab News
According to the
technology research firm,
IDC, spending on smart
machines in countries
across GCC is expected to
reach US$224 million, a
year-on-year increase of
19%.
The IoT could mark a
boom time for SMEs in the
GCC.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
Table 1: Impact of 1% Cost Savings across Key Industries, GCC; Per
Annum
Industry
Current Market Size
(in US$ Billion)
Projected Annual Savings
(in US$ Billion)**
Oil & Gas N/A* 0.5***
Construction 150067
15
Retail 22168
2
Healthcare 4469
0.5
Insurance 1670
0.2
Note: *Oil & Gas market sizes cannot be easily estimated to a reliable degree of
accuracy due to a number of volatile factors involved, such as oil prices, etc.
** The figures have been rounded off to their nearest value
*** The cost savings has been calculated by estimating that about 60%71
of the
US$90 billion Oil & Gas industry cost savings, projected by GE, is attributable to the
GCC region.
Source: Markaz Research
Thus, even assuming a 1% cost savings due to IoT capabilities across five
industries, the cost savings per annum accumulates to about US$20 billion. Since
the scope of IoT is universal in terms of sectors and the cost savings opportunities
presented is immense and yet indeterminable, the potential cost savings could be
exponentially larger compared to the very conservative estimate above. In all, IoT is
expected to create a wave of massive changes in the GCC, in terms of spawning
centres of excellence in established industries and in creating new economic
opportunities for SMEs.
Big Data and its Applications
The use of data to drive strategic decision making, policies and programmes is a
distinct reality of the current phase of the rapidly evolving information age. The
internet has made data the ultimate arbiter in terms of decision making for
organisations, ranging from governmental bodies to private retailers.
It is estimated that the human race generates about 1.7 million bytes of data every
minute, or something equivalent to 360,000 standard DVDs72
. The data comes from
a wide variety of sources in different speeds, volume and variety. Also, the data
comes from every imaginable source, such as sensors that are used to gather
information on the climate, social networking posts, digital videos and pictures,
records of purchase transactions, vehicle telematics, smart phone GPS, etc73
.
In the new global age of exponential information, the need for meticulous
assimilation of that information for meaningful decision making is paramount.
Companies will no longer just compete across standard areas such as product or
services quality, supply chain efficiency, etc. These factors have reached a stage of
67
Saudi Gazette
68
Khaleej Times
69
Zawya
70
The Peninsula Qatar
71
Zawya
72
europa.eu
73
IBM
In all, IoT is expected to
create a wave of massive
changes in the GCC, in
terms of spawning centres
of excellence in
established industries and
in creating new economic
opportunities for SMEs.
The use of data to drive
strategic decision making,
policies and programmes
is a distinct reality of the
current phase of the
rapidly evolving
information age.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
maturity wherein most successful companies appear standardized on them, leaving
little room for competitive differentiation and innovation. Companies of the future,
i.e., those that will succeed now and leave their peers behind are those that can
take unstructured information and decipher meaningful patterns out of them in
order to serve their markets innovatively. Failure to do so is a recipe for disaster.
Even sectors such as healthcare, are now open to creative disruption.
In the Middle East, and particularly in the GCC countries, Big Data will have an
important role to play. Large corporate houses and government services in the
Middle East can use the capabilities provided by Big Data to effectively predict
customer response to product launches, target new revenue streams through
identifying patterns of emerging customer demand, detect financial fraud in real
time, etc. According to the research firm, IDC, in the Middle East, most of the
activity around Big Data is driven by investments on business intelligence (BI), with
about 35% of CIOs in the region having invested in the activity in 2013. Also,
analytics is showing an uptick in demand in terms of Big Data requirements74
.
Across the Middle East, Big Data is being dubbed as the “new oil”75
as the region
moves aggressively into developing itself as a knowledge economy zone.
The rest of this paper discusses key application areas for Big Data across several
industries.
Retail Banking
In the retail banking industry, the use of data for various tasks such as screening
applications for credit risks and checking of transactions for fraud is common
practice. Banks do not need to be convinced of the power that lies within their
enormous data sets. Thus, though the concept of Big Data is not new to banking
circles, what is indeed revolutionalising the retail banking space is the increased
absorption of analytics and Big Data for driving customer retention and profitability.
According to a 2012 Ernst & Young (E&Y) survey, substantial numbers of banking
customers, globally, are considering changing their bank. Customers planning to
swap banks grew to 12% in 2012 from 7% in 2011, worldwide, according to the
E&Y report.
For retail banks, a very significant advantage that can be derived from Big Data is
the development of a 360-degree view of their customers at a highly granular and
individual level. For instance, Spain’s largest domestic bank, CaixaBank, chose
Oracle for deployment of new Big Data capabilities76
. For the Spanish bank, the
implementation of Big Data capabilities will allow it to develop a 360-degree view of
its customers, by integrating data coming from numerous touchpoints such as
internet, offices, ATMs, phone banking, etc. According to CaixaBank, the Big Data
architecture will allow information recorded across various channels or sources to be
able to immediately correspond and talk to each other, letting the bank to develop
predictive models and helping drive new sales opportunities with respect to existing
customers.
74
ITP.net
75
zawya
76
Integration Developer News
In the Middle East, and
particularly in the GCC
countries, Big Data will
have an important role to
play.
For retail banks, a very
significant advantage that
can be derived from Big
Data is the development
of a 360-degree view of
their customers at a
highly granular and
individual level.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
Big Data offers banks the distinct advantage of taking into consideration information
from sources such as social media posts and emails, which do not fit into traditional
or conventional databases. Big Data can help analyse internal bank data records in
correlation with hitherto unconventional sources of information (such as social
media posts) in order to better predict customer behavior and causation. For
instance, the USA based Bank of America (BoA) used Big Data analytics to
understand why its commercial customers were choosing to move to smaller banks.
Using data obtained from the company website, call centre logs, customer interview
transcripts, etc, the company realized that the customers found BoA’s end-to-end
cash management portal highly rigid. This insight enabled BoA to change its product
strategy and introduce the more flexible online offering, Cash Pro Online, in 200977
.
In the GCC region, too, Big Data appears to be gaining strong tail winds. According
to the research firm, IDC, 40% of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) in the Middle
East initiated investments in Big Data technologies and analytics in 201378
.
Moreover, regulation, compliance and governance reporting and requirements are
forcing the hands of players in GCC to adopt investments in Big Data. Retail banks
in the region will be no exception to this trend. In fact, the banking industry will
likely be driving the trend. This is largely due to the fact that banking security,
especially in terms of online banking and fraud, has traditionally been an area of
concern in many GCC countries. Big Data enabled outlier detection in customer
online banking patterns can act as a powerful tool in tracking and neutralizing
fraudulent activities in real time79
.
For retail banks, Big Data promises extensive benefits, from new customer
acquisition to containment of customer churn and attrition. As GCC countries
attempt to forge their respective positions as financial and entrepreneurial hubs, the
need to derive maximum advantage from large data sets will only keep increasing.
Insurance Industry
It is estimated that by 2020, the use of unstructured data (e.g., social media,
videos, etc) will complement and add to the analytical power of structured data,
thus empowering insurers to make more surefooted strategic decisions80
. The
exponential growth of internet connected sensors and devices, projected to reach
50 billion by 2020, will have a deep impact on the availability of dynamic real-time
information. Insurers who are able to exploit this fluid and insightful information for
conducting better pricing decisions, loss control and underwriting will greatly
increase their competitive advantage.
Advances in cloud computing greatly supports the aggregation and economical
storage of large amounts of data, which can be collected from machine-to-machine
(M2M) applications and mobile devices81
. In terms of the insurance industry, such
collected information can be curated, mapped and conjoined with data emanating
from other sources, such as actuarial models, in order to calculate risk and even
perform predictive forecasting of probable events. For e.g., usage-based insurance
77
78
IDC
79
SmartData Collective
80
PwC
81
Verizon
In the GCC region, too,
Big Data appears to be
gaining strong tail winds.
It is estimated that by
2020, the use of
unstructured data (e.g.,
social media, videos, etc)
will complement and add
to the analytical power of
structured data, thus
empowering insurers to
make more surefooted
strategic decisions

MARKAZ RESEARCH
(UBI) systems make available almost real-time insights into driving habits and
vehicular patterns of customers, along with associated risk levels. This information
coming from vehicle sensors is supplemented by additional information in a cloud
computing environment and then analysed. The analysis, thus, helps insurers to set
premium rates customized to individuals and their level of personalized risk.
The trend of personalised insurance, through study of data gained from the
individual and their environment, is an increasingly prominent one in the insurance
space. In the future, highly personalized health insurance policies may be the norm,
through proactive healthcare monitoring or the practice of monitoring of vital health
signs from a multitude of data sources to identify the health status of an individual
to a level closer to the accurate state. In the recent past, Big Data has been finding
a lot of tangible applications in the insurance industry. For instance, many players in
the life insurance industry use Big Data for the following82
–
 Agent recruitment and retention.
 Underwriting/application triage.
 Claims management/fraud detection.
 Target marketing/enhanced customer segmentation.
The insurance industry is expected to go through a substantive growth phase in the
GCC in the short-term. By 2017, the insurance market is expected to total about
US$37.5 billion, with tail winds such as growing population, increased life
expectancy, etc83
. However, incidences of insurance fraud are also on the rise in the
industry. It is estimated that the health insurance industry may be losing over US$1
billion per year on average, due to fraud or abuse84
. With increasing immigration
into the region, instances of insurance fraud are likely to be a persistent problem.
Thus, the use of tools such as Big Data to track and model behaviours of customers
is a valuable asset to offer cost effective and profitable solutions.
Investment and Asset Management Industry
The American investment banking company, Morgan Stanley, makes use of Big Data
in its portfolio analysis programme85
. It is estimated that British investment banks
spend about 4% of their gross operating margin on Big Data R&D86
. UBS, the
Switzerland based bank, uses Big Data as part of its environmental, social and
governance (ESG) programme, in terms of protecting itself from doing business with
clients with a track record of environmental or regulatory malfeasance87
. In essence,
Big Data is reaching the mandatory adoption threshold across many investment
banks and becoming an integral part of doing business.
The Big Data capabilities that UBS has implemented will allow it to safeguard the
bank’s reputational risk profile by avoiding or at least minimizing the risk of doing
business with clients or vendors with a record, probably not easily detectable, of
faltering on core corporate principles (e.g., illegal logging, usage of child labour,
82
The Actuary
83
bqdoha.com
84
Emirates 24/7
85
Forbes.com
86
Infosys
87
American Banker
In the recent past, Big
Data has been finding a
lot of tangible applications
in the insurance industry.
In essence, Big Data is
reaching the mandatory
adoption threshold across
many investment banks
and becoming an integral
part of doing business.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
etc). The utilization of Big Data in yet unseen formats for driving operational
excellence is a distinct possibility. For e.g., in September 2013, the four large global
investment banks - Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Credit Suisse and Barclays, signed a
memorandum of understanding to construct a data storage platform envisaged to
act as a centralized library for holding a collection of key client data88
. The
centralized service, which will be run by the US based Depository Trust and Clearing
Corporation, is expected to be positioned to provide on-demand reference data on
clients, broker-dealers, hedge funds, etc, so that regulatory compliance and client
background checks are streamlined and extremely reliable.
As incidences of tax evasion, misrepresentation of mortgage-backed securities,
money laundering, etc, increases, the centralized data platform is a form of Big Data
capability to enforce compliance and thereby reduce potential compliance costs for
banks in the form of fines. For instance, JPMorgan agreed to pay the US
government-backed housing finance behemoths, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,
US$5.1 billion to settle claims for bad mortgages sold to them in the years leading
up to the 2008 financial crisis89
. As investment and asset management banks deal
with very large data flows and information sets that are collected from various
sources and utilised independently by several parts of the organisation, there can
often be no unified clarity on data status and the areas of its potential use. Also, the
risks of making grievous errors and breaking of compliance regulations too can be
high if a unified singular picture of the business is not available. Thus, Big Data will
increasingly be the arm of banking decisions, both in terms of increasing profitability
and adhering to ever growing compliance requirements.
In the GCC, large infrastructure investment projects are being powered by oil
income, which are in turn used to drive short-term growth in the quest for economic
diversification. Also, investment banks and asset managers, in the GCC, are coming
under increasing scrutiny since the 2008 crisis, with questions being raised around
corporate governance and transparency. Thus, any stutter in ensuring full
compliance with existing regulatory norms or doing business with parties considered
below the radar of reputational respectability may invite severe risks for investment
bankers and asset managers. Thus, Big Data is expected to enjoy robust uptake in
the GCC investment banking and asset management space. Also, with reports that
GCC banks are being targeted by fraudulent operations once every 14 seconds,
investment and asset management banks, too, will sense an increasing urgency to
undertake every action possible to protect their data90
. Big Data is likely to be used
in this context as a tool of advanced analytics to identify and detect trends of
malicious behavior.
Retail Industry
The retail market in the GCC is expected to reach US$221 billion by 2015, growing
at an annual rate of approximately 8% from 2012 through 201591
. It is well known
that online retailers like Amazon have been making use of Big Data capabilities to
drive sales and profitability. Increasingly, traditional brick and mortar retail stores
88
ft.com
89
CNN
90
Booz Allen Hamilton
91
Saudi Gazette
The utilization of Big Data
in yet unseen formats for
driving operational
excellence is a distinct
possibility.
Thus, Big Data is
expected to enjoy robust
uptake in the GCC
investment banking and
asset management space.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
too are turning towards Big Data to boost profitability, which is usually under
immense pressure in the retail industry92
.
In the retail industry, Big Data helps in the key objectives of understanding
customer buying behaviours and in developing effective marketing promotions. The
American retailer, Macy's, until very recently, utilized Excel spreadsheets to analyse
a plethora of customer data. With the recent introduction of Big Data analytics
software by Macy’s, the company brought in the capacity to analyse extremely large
data sets, including external sources such as Twitter feeds and social media posts93
.
Macy’s reports that introduction of Big Data capabilities has allowed it to boost store
sales by 10%.
A singular advantage that Big Data offers traditional retailing is the ability to drive
the entire sales model on data. Experts predict that this trend is likely to help
traditional retailers push back against the encroachment of e-commerce, principally
through exploiting analytics to generate experiences that cannot be replicated or
created online. Big Data is all set to encompass the retail shopping environment in
order to cater to the distinct needs of individual customers. For instance, in store
cameras can monitor the aisles that an individual visits, the items picked up or
explored and those items that were eventually purchased. All these information
would be fed into the data analytics system of the retailer, which will in turn
produce insights for customized marketing in terms of surfacing before the
particular customer the products that are most likely of use or personal value.
In the current retail environment, customers have access to unprecedented choice,
which has cast pressure on the traditional power of loyalty. In the bid to maximize
sales opportunity, wherever available, retailers are increasingly focusing on
personalizing the entire process. This has indeed led to a new revolution in the retail
shopping space, from retailing to the concept of “me-tailing”94
. The evolution to me-
tail means that the retail experience is now all about automated personalized
shopping that makes use of data and information from every source to enhance
customer communication and for creating the subconsciously desired shopping
ambiance.
With respect to the GCC, the retail sector has consistently attracted high levels of
investment; and is buoyed by growing consumer confidence and increasing
population levels. Though Big Data at the level (e.g., studying facial expressions)
practiced by American or European retailers is heavily likely to invite concerns on
privacy in the GCC region; there is evidence that enhanced data analytical
capabilities will be welcomed as a useful step in the direction towards understanding
customer purchase decisions. As retailers grapple with wafer thin profit margins and
growing supply chain complexities, any avenues for enhancing customer loyalty and
reducing costs are likely to be adopted. A recent research by the consulting firm,
Bain & Company, found that companies that were ahead in the curve in terms of
adopting Big Data were twice as likely to find themselves in the top quartile of
financial performance with respect to their industry peers. With more global brands
92
Forbes.com
93
CNBC
94
Accenture
In the retail industry, Big
Data helps in the key
objectives of
understanding customer
buying behaviours and in
developing effective
marketing promotions.
As retailers grapple with
wafer thin profit margins
and growing supply chain
complexities, any avenues
for enhancing customer
loyalty and reducing costs
are likely to be adopted.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
and retailers entering GCC, the harvest of Big Data is likely to be reaped in the
region, as well.
Law Enforcement
Big Data analytics has debuted into the way policing is conducted in several cities in
the US and Europe. In what is a rapidly developing trend, Predictive Policing uses
Big Data capabilities in terms of marrying computer models and extensive prior
crime and environmental data95
. The police are now using predictive analytics to
anticipate and forecast where and what sort of crimes may soon be committed. For
example, police in Fort Lauderdale (Florida, USA), have enlisted IBM in order to
harness data to better fight crime96
. The Fort Lauderdale Big Data policing project
involves analyzing a variety of data coming from sources as varied as emergency
police call records, special events information, crime data, public transportation
routes, construction activities, previous criminal incidents, etc. The data is then
analysed using a advanced analytics, including pattern recognition, anomaly
detection and causality analysis.
Predictive policing is being considered a major success in the USA, where the
concept first took root and was tested. For e.g., in its first year of using predictive
policing, the Santa Cruz (California, USA) police department reported drop in
assaults by 9% with robberies down by a staggering 27%. Meanwhile, auto theft
recoveries increased by 22%97
. Big Data based security systems and policing is
expected to spread rapidly through multiple continents. There are plans afoot in
Europe to combine predictive and analytical technologies with extant video
surveillance systems. Dubbed as the INDECT project (Intelligent information system
supporting observation, searching and detection for security of citizens in urban
environment), it aims to develop tools and solutions for threat detection through
automatic means98
. For e.g., the computers would sift through extremely large
quantities of real-time video streams and trigger alarms around potential
disturbances to the police forces, such as a massive sports event where a violent
outbreak appears likely.
The GCC is seeing a number of spectacular infrastructural investments and is
expected to host many upcoming centerpiece global events (e.g., the 2022 FIFA
World Cup in Qatar). The GCC countries are expected to invest over US$1.1 trillion
to US$2 trillion in infrastructure projects in the short-term99
. With such large
investments and reputation at stake, the need to ensure security for the society is
vital in terms of sustaining the business as usual mode. Also, in the GCC, the issue
of security is receiving serious consideration, as evidenced by the ratification of the
GCC security treaty by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in September 2013100
. The
treaty is paving the way for exchanging information and expertise necessary,
among the GCC countries, for maintaining and upholding security. Such initiatives
can thrive better in a Big Data environment, where information sharing and security
analytics can be conducted more effectively and efficiency, in real time.
95
The International Association of Chiefs of Police
96
GCN
97
Al Jazeera America
98
INDECT
99
100
Al Nisr Publishing LLC
Big Data analytics has
debuted into the way
policing is conducted in
several cities in the US
and Europe.
Also, in the GCC, the issue
of security is receiving
serious consideration, as
evidenced by the
ratification of the GCC
security treaty by the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
in September 2013

MARKAZ RESEARCH
At the 32nd meeting of the GCC interior ministers held in Manama (Bahrain) in
December 2013, it was agreed to create a unified GCC police force, the GCCPOL, to
enhance regional security through tackling crime and deterring security threats101
.
The GCC region is a source of income for millions of expatriates, with remittances
flowing from the region to various parts of the world. Approximately US$50 billion is
sent as remittances from the GCC by expatriate workers102
. Thus, the GCC is a large
remittance outflow zone. Studies have shown that there is a strong link between
unstructured and ill documented money transfers and organized crime103
. Big Data
capabilities can help law enforcement authorities in the GCC region to correlate
money transfer patterns and agents in real-time through sharing information across
the financial transfer network. This will help in quicker identification of individuals
and groups associated with organized crime such as drug trafficking. Thus, Big Data
predictive policing has a good scope for implementation in the GCC region.
Healthcare
The healthcare field is one that is awash with critical data, with information doubling
every five years104
. About 80% of a hospital’s data is captured across unstructured
platforms such as registration and discharge forms, doctors’ notes, phone calls,
MRIs, x-rays, etc105
. However, Big Data appears to have made a significant entry
into the field of healthcare. For e.g., in December 2012, the British government
announced plans for Big Data enabled DNA code sequencing of 100,000 patients in
order to develop effective personalized care for Cancer patients.
Big Data in healthcare is finding diverse and hitherto unimagined applications. For
instance, the Durkheim Project, which is a collaborative effort between Patterns and
Predictions, a USA based predictive analytics firm, and Veterans Education and
Research Association of Northern New England (USA), analyses real-time data from
social posts to identify military veterans who might be at risk of suicide106
. It is
highly probable that in the not too distant future, healthcare providers may use
such capabilities to aid and serve patients who feel vulnerable.
In comparison with industries such as retail, healthcare organizations have proved
to be sluggish in terms of adopting Big Data strategies. However, the growing
importance of incorporating electronic health records, new medical payment
reimbursement models and the profusion of smart medical equipment that can talk
to each other have all necessitated the ability to integrate disparate pieces of data
from multiple, sometimes appearing random, sources to produce a coherent unitary
picture. Estimates put 80% of patient information as unstructured in nature, which
means that it has been traditionally difficult to mine them107
. This has resulted in
problems with respect to pursuing sensitive tasks such as clinical trials, due to the
inability to develop a consistent data set over time. However, Big Data is providing
solutions in such high cost areas. For e.g., Merck, the American pharmaceutical
giant, announced a partnership with the Israeli health agency, Maccabi Healthcare
101
Times of Oman
102
bqdoha.com
103
World Bank Group
104
Washington Post
105
Ibid.
106
NBC News
107
Attunity
Studies have shown that
there is a strong link
between unstructured and
ill documented money
transfers and organized
crime
In comparison with
industries such as retail,
healthcare organizations
have proved to be
sluggish in terms of
adopting Big Data
strategies.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
Services, in terms of using the latter’s extensive data set to track, study and analyse
disease progression and effectiveness of medication over the lifetime of a patient108
.
Failed clinical trials usually cost billions for pharmaceutical companies.
Reports indicate that the risk of non-communicable diseases (NCD) is growing in the
GCC on the back of economic advances that generally fuels a sedentary lifestyle.
The economic burden of NCD in the GCC is expected to exacerbate with costs to
governments reaching about $68 billion in the region by 2022. There is already
concern that the welfare state model may not be a feasible one in the long term
horizon for GCC countries such as Kuwait109
. Thus, the issue of exploding healthcare
costs will come as a force multiplier in terms of the pressure on long term
governmental spending capacity. The use of Big Data to identify effective
personalized care that comes at a lower cost is a robust proposition that the GCC
authorities are likely to find highly attractive. Big Data in GCC healthcare is a key
trend that will influence how the industry is operated and governed. However, given
the extremely sensitive nature of private health data, the adoption of Big Data in
healthcare applications across the GCC may face headwinds on strong privacy
concerns.
108
InformationWeek
109
Thomson Reuters
The economic burden of
NCD in the GCC is
expected to exacerbate
with costs to governments
reaching about $68 billion
in the region by 2022.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
Appendix
Case Study – Big Data and Gulf Air
Gulf Air is the national flag carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The airline had
recently embarked upon a strategy of restructuring, which involves reshaping and
optimizing its portfolio of routes. Even as the airline was paying rapt attention to the
process of transforming itself into a commercially profitable enterprise, realization
was growing that social media posts about the airline was a rich source of
information that could help in sentiment analysis that may, in turn, lead to
compelling business insights.
Social media posts are unstructured qualitative data that are painstaking to track,
and furthermore, it is usually extremely difficult to draw tactical insights from them
in terms of guiding operational strategies. In the case of Gulf Air, 80% of the social
media posts were in the language of Arabic, which necessitated capabilities in terms
of performing Arabic sentiment analysis. Gulf Air took a conscious decision to not
outsource their Big Data needs to external vendors; but instead, a small team of
close to half a dozen people was set up to undertake a part-time assignment on Big
Data.
The team was deputed to attend several seminars on Big Data and intense research
on the topic was conducted, with the project team scanning and analyzing multiple
software platforms for their specific needs. The IT department had decided to make
public the results of the experiment, only if the outcome was successful, as there
was no clear proof of concept to illustrate before senior management beforehand.
The project team, after a period of research and self-learning, decided to opt for
Cloudera’s Apache Hadoop-based software. An open-source framework, Apache
Hadoop allows enterprises to process massive amounts of data, irrespective of their
structure, at costs that are much lower in comparison with outsourcing to large IT
vendors. Though Hadoop is credited with driving the adoption of Big Data, the
challenge remains that the Hadoop platform choice is not supported by the vendor
beyond certain prescribed levels.
Thus, the Gulf Air part-time project team had to drive their understanding and
implementation capabilities on a self-learning basis, leading to a period of a year
before the solution went live. The greatest challenge that the team faced was
getting the system to assemble or compile all the various Arabic dialects and slangs
that constituted the language, so that the software could make sense or understand
the social media posts and then translate them into the English language. The
solution was a resounding success, which ultimately led to Gulf Air winning the 2013
award in the category of Big Data Solution Project, from among hundreds of entries,
at the renowned IT expo, GITEX Technology. Gulf Air’s success is very noteworthy
in the context that an open-source software was adopted by an in-house team,
which led ultimately to considerable cost savings and development of rich internal
competencies.

MARKAZ RESEARCH
Case Study – Big Data and Royal Dutch Shell plc
Royal Dutch Shell plc (or Shell) is a global energy and petrochemicals group that
ranks among the top global companies in terms of yearly revenues. In early 2013,
the global media reported extensively on Shell’s new drill ship, called the Noble Bully
I (NB1). NB1 is a new type of drill ship that does not look like a standard vessel of
its genre. The main purpose of the ship is to help extract oil from otherwise
inaccessible depths of the ocean. NB1 is used in Shell’s strategic Mars field, located
at the Gulf of Mexico, USA, at a depth of 914 metres (or 3,000 feet). More
specifically, NB1 is used at the Mars B field development, drilling wells for a new
platform called the Olympus tension leg platform.
The Mars B field project uses a newer generation of sensors that pick up
exponentially more data over the previous generation. It is here that Shell has been
able to make use of advances in Big Data capabilities. The data coming from the
sensors are analysed utilizing Shell developed artificial intelligence tools. The data is
then converted into 3D and 4D maps of the oil reservoirs. Then, the data is
analysed by Shell scientists who are based onshore, and the completed
visualisations are made available to the drill ship crew.
The use of Big Data analytics in conjunction with imaging technologies is enabling
Shell to map out and extract oil from previously unmapped or uncharted oil and gas
fields. It is notable that these energy fields are locked in shale and tight rock
formations, located deep under the floor of the ocean. Prospecting for energy within
shale and tight rock formations is an extremely expensive exercise. Thus, the
precision with which reservoirs are identified by Big Data enabled analytics is
proving to be a great boon for companies like Shell, in terms of reducing the cost of
trial drilling. Statistics reveal that the average cost to locate and produce a new
barrel, globally, has risen to US$27 in 2011 compared to US$6 in 1998110
. But in
the case of America, an early mover in adoption Big Data analytics for the energy
industry, the cost has actually dropped to the US$7- US$15 range111
, marking a
remarkable progress in operational efficiency.
110
BioAge Group, LLC.
111
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

MARKAZ RESEARCH
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