DeepSec 2016 Talk: Why Companies Must Control Their Data in the Era of IoT – and How To – Kurt Kammerer

Sanna/ November 3, 2016/ Conference, Internet, Interview, Security

In his talk Kurt Kammerer addresses any company’s dilemma: The need for data sharing in the era of IoT while at the same time controlling access and ownership. In order to succeed in business, it is imperative to make data available to customers, suppliers and business partners. However, the explosion and the proclaimed free flow of data can turn against an organisation and threaten its very existence, if not professionally controlled. We asked Mr. Kammerer a few questions beforehand.

Please tell us the top 5 facts about your talk.

The relevance of “data” increases by the day and “data” is imperative to compete. Therefore, it is an asset companies must control.
Data ownership is increasingly being challenged in the era of cloud/IoT (who created the data and who actually owns it?)
Not exercising enough control over your data will dilute your business model.
Data privacy and data ownership are cornerstones for any IoT use case
IoT will control you (rather than the other way round) unless you take data governance, ownership and control seriously.

How did you come up with it? Was there something like an initial spark that set your mind on creating this talk?

My talk addresses the major “data dilemma” that enterprises have to face:

On the one hand, data has emerged as the strongest competitive asset that a company has. Limiting access to such data is vital for the survival of any company.
On the other hand, only if you share and publish data within your commercial ecosystem, you can have commercial success.

Reconciling these contradictory requirements in daily business life requires full dedication, skill and discipline from all stakeholders of an organisation or ecosystem. At the same time, consumers must be aware of this in order to make informed decisions about with whom they want to share which data.

Why do you think this is an important topic?

In the era of IoT, data is king!

Is there something you want everybody to know – some good advice for our readers maybe?

Whoever is in control of your data, will be able to control your destiny.

A prediction about the future – What do you think will be the next innovations or future downfalls when it comes to particularly your field of expertise / the topic of your talk?

Being in control means being in control of your critical data, and not all data available. We will see gigantic “big data” initiatives fail due to the daunting and cumbersome task to identify “the needles in the haystack” if the haystack experiences explosive growth. In contrast, we will see “smart data” solutions succeed that do not bet on sheer processing power, but also take relevance into account. Therefore, keeping your “haystack” at a size that fits your barn by filtering out the noise will remain critically important.

kurt-kammerer

Kurt is CEO and co-founder of regify, a software company that focuses on trusted e-communications. As a serial entrepreneur, Kurt has established several software and communication businesses. From 2003 to 2008, he led the growth of US-based VI Agents, a pioneer in business applications delivered as a service. From 1996 to 2002, Kurt served as CEO of living systems AG, an international supplier of e-commerce software which he had co-founded in 1996.

Kurt holds a Business and IT degree from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. He was honored as a “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum. He also received awards from the Asia-Europe Young Entrepreneurs Forum in Singapore and the Wharton Infosys Business Forum.