Based on the fundamental premise that data, information and knowledge are three intricate, indispensable and interdependent elements, hyperscale systems — distributed computing environments that efficiently scale from a few servers to thousands of servers — are being built to unearth untapped business value with unprecedented processing power, speed and accuracy.

CCC Information Services is at the center of this innovation within the insurance industry. We work to help customers convert data from discrete facts into meaningful structures, and ultimately, into domain knowledge. Enterprises seeking to capture a strategic advantage and growth will need to harness the value buried deep inside this domain knowledge, which includes generating metrics, categorizing results, assessing values, making forecasts and predictions, and enabling informed decisions.

The first thing to understand is that today's data is different. We think about it in the context of 3 Vs:

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          • Volume
          • Variety, and
          • Velocity.  

The vast amount of dataset (volume) that are generated now are distributed, diverse, disparate and heterogeneous in nature. They are structured, unstructured and semi- structured (variety). And, these data set are growing at exponential pace (velocity). For example, a single blade in a GE gas or wind turbine, generates 500 gigabytes of data each day. That means in 30 days a single blade would generate as much content as the print collection of the Library of Congress. For the record, there are about 4,500 GE gas turbines around the world, each with dozens of blades. There are examples like this everywhere, including within the P&C insurance industry.