Data collection and analysis have risen to become one of the most important roles in industrial development, especially in industries involved with the internet of things, senior executives said.

Companies in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, are applying emerging data technologies to ensure the effective management of the city, by integrating it with the IoT industry.

"Cloud computing is a significant support platform for the IoT," said Song Hongming, senior marketing director of Huayun Data Group, a Chinese unicorn company that provides cloud services for over 300,000 businesses in the fields of traffic management, finance, education and manufacturing.

"The IoT connects things and collects a super-large amount of data from them and cloud computing helps to store, manage and process data to a much greater capability," Song explained.

Huayun has set up an efficient infrastructure-as-a-service cloud platform that supplies an on-demand environment for mass rapid transit networks to develop, test, deliver, and manage software applications, while ensuring normal operations.

Song said that Huayun supported the building and operating of the cloud computing platforms in Wuxi, including the one being built for the city's third metro line.

Using cloud computing, the Wuxi metro can flexibly respond to the demands put on stations during rush hours. Monitoring charts and large display screens provide real-time information for passengers to ensure their safety and to keep them up to date with metro network conditions.

Data collection and analysis technology is also being used in business intelligence and reporting tools developed by FanRuan Software, a leading business intelligence vendor in China, helping companies to improve their efficiency and processing capacities.

"The big data gathered from the finance sector, internet, and IoT-applied areas has been creating a rising demand for powerful data analysis tools in recent years. That's how our business thrives," said Chen Yan, CEO of FanRuan.

As the largest player in China's business intelligence market, with a 13.76 percent market share, FanRuan is the only Chinese company that is listed in the world's top 10 for the industry, a recent International Data Corporation report showed.

Huayun and FanRuan are the only two enterprises in Jiangsu province to be listed in China's top 50 big data companies in 2018, as was announced at the third Big Data World conference in Beijing recently. Both companies have benefited from the business-friendly environment in the city of Wuxi, according to their executives.

The two companies are exhibiting their latest big data products and solutions at the 2018 World Internet of Things Exposition held from Sept 15 to 18.