We are living in an interesting time in human history. Every individual – living or non-living – is a data. Every individual with a gadget is generating data. And if this was not enough, now we have machines generating their own data at a massive scale.
The world will generate nearly 400 Zetabytes of data from nearly 2 Zetabytes in 2010. That’s a whopping 200% increase in just 18 years. The colossal amount of data being generated has been triggered by multitudes of factors. The proliferation of mobile phones, audio/video content, IoTs and various advancements have unleashed a tsunami of data growth.
While the “commoditization” of data is an interesting case study, the industry is also reeling under its data problem. As the volume of data grows, the major challenge is to ensure that the right data is not only stored but protected, processed, optimized, analyzed and then leveraged for business insights and data-driven decisions that will drive the next level of growth for the business and all this without major cost escalations. Semiconductor and electronics industries, EDA in its latest avatar is one of the major industries that is growing at a very fast rate and is a huge consumer and generator of colossal volumes of data.
We are all surrounded by electronic devices, gadgets and sensors. The modern world cannot function without electronics. In fact, we are speedily moving towards a world where almost all machines will mostly be electronic devices rather than just mechanical ones. A blaring example of this is the auto industry. The number of electronic parts and sensors in a car has grown exponentially in the last few decades. An EV bike or car, except its wheels, is an electronic device instead of a mechanical one. At the heart of all this lies the semiconductor manufacturing which designs and manufactures the “chips” or the electronic circuit boards which eventually do all the magic in an electronic device. No wonder, semiconductor and electronics manufacturing is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. As per Mordor Intelligence, the combined market of electronics and semiconductor manufacturing is pegged at nearly $1100 billion currently and is expected to grow up to $1700 billion ($1.7 trillion) by 2029 at the rate of nearly 6-8% CAGR. India is one of the driving forces of the industry both as a consumer and a supplier. As per Reuters, India produced $115 billion worth of electronics making it the fourth largest supplier of mobile phones in the world. What is more remarkable is that India does not just assemble spare parts or manufacture small parts but is surging ahead in semiconductor R&D, design, manufacturing and even a Fab. With massive government encouragement, the semiconductor manufacturing industry in India is pegged to grow at 20% CAGR, a stupendous number for any industry.
Semiconductor manufacturing, electronics (EMS), Fab and EDA, though spoken interchangeably, are the stages of the whole process of converting silica to an intelligent device with the potential to alter the world. Its raw material is a silicon wafer which is elaborately processed to be conducive to be designed and etched with electronic circuits that can conduct electric current. The complex integration of these “chips” with other chips and machines is what constitutes an electronic device. Traditionally, the chip design was a manual process however technical advancements in software and hardware have given rise to a completely new sub-industry called Electronics Design Automation or EDA. EDA uses complex software and tools to research, develop and design complex circuits and logic boards that go into chip design. The data requirements of EDA span across multiple stages with files varying in sizes and format. A few of the file formats are Verilog, GDSII, OASIS, CAD files, 3D design files et al. These are very large files ranging from each file of 1GB to even 40-50GB or even 100GB. Even a small or medium-sized organization needs a large amount of storage space to store these files. Given the data is the core intellectual property critical to make or break businesses, it is extremely important that this data is not just stored properly but secured and backed up well so that it can be restored in the event of device failure or sabotage. Some organizations who do not want to take chances also create a disaster recovery mechanism where the data is replicated across geographically different regions to prevent data loss in the event of natural or man-made disaster. A KPMG study says only 35% of Indian organizations protect their data. If the large enterprises are removed from the survey, the number is an embarrassing single digit.
Data storage is a critical technology no industry can survive without. Ironically, the awareness about it is completely disproportionate. EDA or semiconductor design are heavy consumers of technology. It not only needs a large amount of computing and storage but it also needs storage systems that are very fast and performant. Software like Cadence, Synopsys, and Mentor graphics need tremendous amounts of computing power. To feed the large computing power, equally fast storage systems need to be constantly providing data for processing, rendering and generating designs. Failure to provide quick data leads to wastage of critical compute resources leading to colossal waste of resources. With the advent of cloud computing, the options have increased however there is a proportionate increase in the complexity of designing compute and storage solutions. If the solutions on the cloud are not designed and set up properly, not only the compute cost is increased but the egress distorts all the opex calculations. Similarly, the on-premise storage solution if not designed well, leads to inefficient systems resulting in wastage of time and delays in GTM.
As India stands at the cusp of revolutionary growth in advanced technology development and manufacturing, it is important that the most vital component – data is stored and managed well for which a robust storage system is the foundation. Loss of data not only results in financial loss but is also humiliating at the negotiating table when global greats talk about leading the world – an idea whose time for Bharat has come and we cannot jeopardize it by a stupid data loss.
Mr. Amit Chaurasia, Data Infrastructure Expert, Founder, Dataneers
