Cisco Systems : You haven’t really arrived until your checked luggage has

Cisco Blog >Data Center

Think about it: you're checking in for that international flight across an ocean, connecting through a busy hub somewhere.

Your suitcase is weighed and given a tag. This tag contains some basic information:

• Where it needs to go.
• When it needs to be there.
• Who it belongs to.

As you leave the check-in area, make your way through airport security, and finally to the gate, your suitcase has already started its own complex journey down a maze of conveyor belts, security scans, luggage carts and baggage handlers - not at just one, but in this scenario, at three airports.

It's no wonder there's a potential for lost luggage. Yet thankfully more often than not most passengers are reunited with their luggage at their destination.

The positive outcome - in this case, your checked belongings arrive with you - depends on how the data on the luggage tag is processed by the airport's intricate systems. Each scan of that tag along it's journey through the system results in a decision on what needs to happen to it next. The workflow of the systems required to get that suitcase from point A to B to C is mind-boggling.

I find that fascinating.

Using checked luggage as an example, it's hard imagine how just three bits of data can result in such a positive customer experience and desired outcome. We tend to take it for granted. The keys to success are the processes and supporting infrastructure that create that experience and outcome: data preparation, data analytics and data management.

The Bigger Data edition of Unleashing IT goes into the latter: how your organization can achieve desired outcomes with the right data preparation, analytics, and management tools in place, supported by a solid and well integrated infrastructure.

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Let's face it, whether you're just starting your journey or returning from one, you haven't truly arrived until you and your suitcase pass through customs together..