Big data can solve big problems

The IT 2020 Summit had two parts; macro topics in big data and cloud computing, and big data's impact on three of China's priority industries: healthcare, energy efficiency, and integrated transportation. Symbolizing the overarching relationship, American and Chinese speakers had parallel roles.

In the macro session, Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, explained how cloud computing overcomes capital, scale, and geography. His speech, "Brave New IT for a Liquid World", focused on cloud (public, private, hybrid), mobile, apps and analytics, and he recognized China as a creative partner.

Wang Jian, chief technology officer of Alibaba, emphasized the transformation nature of "Internet, Data, Computing", describing how Internet sales are disrupting traditional retail sales and empowering small businesses to compete with giant corporations (for example, banking).

Joseph Salvo, director of the Industrial Internet Consortium, called the industrial Internet "revolutionary" such that GE is refashioning itself more as a software and analytics company than as an industrial company. The "democratization of information", he said, will unleash unprecedented creative power and change the world.

Wang Endong, chief scientist of Inspur, and Ying Huang, vice-president of Lenovo, described the astounding growth in big data and shared their observations of emerging IT trends.

For big data's impact on healthcare. Hu Jianzhong, deputy president, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, focused on how it is transforming China's healthcare management of the country's huge population, including a vision of personal, tailored services to patients. Keith Dunleavy, CEO of US-based Inovalon, focused on data-driven insights driving new thinking in healthcare, improving quality and financial performance. He cited a study refuting the concern that taking insulin for diabetes might cause gastrointestinal cancer. Remarkably, what would normally take years in a controlled study was completed, with data analytics, in just eight days. High-speed, low-cost retrospective analyses of massive datasets provide statistically viable alternatives to expensive and extremely lengthy clinical trials.

For big data's impact on energy efficiency, Luan Wenpeng, chief expert of China Electric Power Research Institute, described China's "smart grid", including the installation of 300 million smart meters. Thomas Overbye, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, focused on optimizing electric power grid operations.

For big data's impact on integrated transportation, Guo Jifu, director of Beijing Transportation Research Center, detailed Beijing's data-based initiatives to ameliorate severe traffic congestion. Amelia Regan, professor of Computer Science and Transportation Systems Engineering, University of California at Irvine, presented transformational technologies on the transportation horizon.

In addition, a smaller IT 2020 Workshop enabled big data experts in healthcare, transportation, and electric grid to explore current research, seeking joint US-China projects. There was intense discussion around the sharing of data for disease and treatment, the human genome being essentially the same globally. One suggestion was a big data analysis of traditional Chinese medicine, both to discover new treatments for illness and to debunk folk remedies that do not work. Throughout, everyone concurred that patient privacy must be protected.

EMC Vice-Chairman Bill Teuber concluded IT 2020 by stating "it's a privilege for EMC and VMware to be China's long-term partner in using cloud and big data to tackle the big problems of modern economies and societies".

"What we do here matters," Teuber stated. "We are an example of how organizations from different cultures can cooperate to improve not only their own countries but also the entire world."

All agreed that China and the US, working together, have the solemn responsibility of shaping the future of IT and thus changing the world. Moreover, the more China and the US seek to solve common problems, the less threatening divisive issues become.

The author is an international corporate strategist and political/economics commentator. He is the author of How China's Leaders Think and a biography of former president Jiang Zemin. He spoke at the book launch ceremony of President Xi Jinping's new book, The Governance of China. (Disclosure: the author is an adviser to EMC.)