It\’s not just the data that\’s big
Big Data ! How cool is that ! Imagine all the things that your big data can tell you !
All you have to do it implement it, right ? How hard can that be ??
Answer: It’s VERY hard indeed for such a simple concept.
But why is it so hard ?
Largely, it’s because of the choices you’ll have to make, the platforms you deliver on, and the suppliers you’ll have to deal with.
Sure, there are lots of big data solutions, just like there are lots of big data consultancies, but ALL of them come at a cost, no matter how ‘free’ they are.
Just by way of further reading, I recommend this:
http://dataconomy.com/understanding-big-data-ecosystem/
It’s a short article, detailing the general areas you’ll need to be considering, such as Infrastructure, Analytics and Applications, and is well worth a look.
The main thing you might realise while reading it is the sheer scale of the big data business. A few short years ago, you had your RDBMS of choice (SQL Server, DB2, Oracle,…), some flat files out of your legacy system, and some spreadsheets that Dave in Accounts was using to track how many toner cartridges he needed to order.
Now you got everything. Literally everything. And some other stuff besides that you didn’t even know existed.
Picking the right platform from that lot seems like a Herculean task. Indeed, maybe there is no ‘right’ platform ? And if not, how many platforms are too many? Then, it’s not just about the platform your data is currently stored in, it’s also about integrating those data sources to really deliver valuable insight to your business in simple and flexible way.
Perhaps the question we need to be asking is ‘What does our data look like, and what does the business need it to look like?’.
From that question, you can start to see where you want to be. Getting there is still going to be tough, but at least you’ll have an idea of what success might be.
And perhaps, if you can have some fun along the way, that wouldn’t be a bad thing either J
Back soon…
The Modern Dataist 