It's not a particularly great metaphor in these times, especially if you live around the Gulf of Mexico, but I would, perhaps, adapt this metaphor slightly, and I would say that data is the new soil.
而且在这个时代这也不是什么很特别的比喻 尤其是如果你生活在墨西哥湾, 但我想，或者可以对这个比喻稍加改动， 我要说数据是新土壤．