‘Legislation versus being competitive in the world’ — Here’s how regulations enable and hinder digital growth

• Legislation can go both ways--both hindering and supporting the movement of digital transformation.
• While red-tape and bureaucracy slow down change coming through, new data storage requirements also enable more efficient processes to be put in place.
• B.S. Teh, the Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Seagate stated that, “It’s about legislation versus being competitive in the world.”

India’s impetus on digitising through ‘Digital India’ is no secret but the beuractic loopholes required for effective implementation are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, legislation slows down digital growth through its, sometimes, stringent requirements. But on the other hand, it also enables digitalisation by propagating data storage.

B.S. Teh, the Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Seagate recently said, “Regulations are a hindrance when legislation gets in the way of change, but an enabler for storage,” in a conversation with Business Insider India. He added that at the end of day, “It’s about legislation versus being competitive in the world.”

Since the digital transformation has the potential to redefine traditional paradigms along ethical, moral and societal norms — there’s also need for legislation to transform itself to take on these challenges. This expands from issues of vehicle ownership to genomic and advanced DNA profiling that is meant to influence healthcare directives.

Enabling or hindering transformation

As per a study conducted by the International Data Corporation, which was sponsored by Seagate, the digital world created, captured, replicated and consumed 33 zettabytes of digital data in 2018. By 2025, that’s expected to grow even further to 175 zettabytes.

If one zettabytes is one trillion gigabytes — that means the world is suffering a dearth of storage infrastructure right now. It’s not just about about storing data in the long run, but having access to real-times data that can be analysed to help users make the most efficient decisions possible.

Teh says, “India is the most progressive in terms of adoption technology in government and recognising oncoming trends of the economy.”

While India has been playing catch-up with the rest of the world, usually seen as the imitating economy rather than the innovating one, it also one of the fastest growing.

In Teh’s opinion, data guardianship is key going forward in the age of digitisation especially with cloud migration playing such a strategic role. It’s also important to keep in mind, considering the isotonic nature of digital data, that a global approach to storing and processing data is important.

Collection of data and its analysis is meant to make life easier for the everyday consumer, like how to get from point A to point B using the fastest route possible to where to find the cheapest deal on the product that you’re looking to buy. But that analysis is all dependent on the how prepared businesses are to capture data and more importantly, how it can be stored securely.