The language gap between business and tech is a barrier that Steve Todd, VP of Corporate Strategy at EMC, and Doug Laney, VP and Chief Data Officer (CDO) at Gartner, are intent on breaking down. And while transforming current business models is gradual work, they’re innovating a shift in traditional paradigms.

“Companies that traditionally sell products are realizing that they need to start making money out of data in order to grow their revenues,” Todd told Stu Miniman (@stu) and Paul Gillin (@pgillin), hosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, at the MIT CDOIQ Symposium. “These companies are considering ways to attach value to their content. We have CEOs looking to CDOs and asking, ‘How can I create value for this data?'”

And while there’s plenty of work to be done in learning exactly how to set a dollar sign on data, Laney said the interest in monetizing information is growing more and more. “In a year and half of doing research, we’ve talked to so many people who are hungry for equations and hard approaches,” he said.

Is there a foolproof formula for monetizing data?

However, finding a foolproof formula for monetizing data is further away than you might think. While Todd and Laney have spent plenty of time working with valuation experts to derive formulas and models, they say that measuring the value of an intangible asset is notoriously tricky work.

The current system is a bit like the Wild West of data valuation — fraught with imprecise bartering and negotiation. “Even companies that sell datasets don’t have a set formula or standard,” said Laney. “It’s extremely important that we find a way to formulate this process.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the MIT CDOIQ Symposium.

Photo by SiliconANGLE