Big Data. It seems like it’s a “big” topic these days. We’re hearing it more and more in the media, in business, and in school. It’s supposed to be revolutionary. It’s supposed to be the next big technology breakthrough…and also the next challenge.
At the Golden Source Consultants LIONShare event we asked three different Service Providers to tell us what they’re seeing in the market. How are they seeing clients use Big Data? Why is it so important for businesses? What impacts will it have on our daily life? How should Big Data be done successfully?
As one of our speakers, Julie Rachel, quoted her client, “I want to play chess with my data, not checkers.” Big Data is changing the game.
Lionchare big data panel: Highlights
If you weren’t able to come to the event here are some of the highlights from our speakers.
Bobby John, Band of Coders – What is Big Data?
Bobby highlighted how our world is changing, from a static world of data to a world that has information at your finger tips without searching. In the past, we were accustomed to such things as flipping through the phonebook or unfolding a map to find a new route. Now we’re beginning to see how organizations are able to use data to trend what their clients like or even better predict events in their own business. Bobby highlighted two examples, but what he notes is that the definition of Big Data is really different for every organization. He encourages each person and organization to take a look at the data that they are collecting and find a way to put it to work for their company and their customers.
Mark Meersman, IPC Global – Why is Big Data Important?
Mark first attempts to answer the question “Is Big Data a fad?” His conclusion is that Big Data is not a fad because it is imminent and systemic. We generate so much data every day that we will have to find some way to manage and process the data. What he does predict is that dashboards are a fad. He sees Big Data being used in three ways: 1) insights into their own company, 2) insights into their customers, 3) insights into their competitors. In his talk he gave several examples of how the IPC Global team worked with Big Data to change employee behavior and drive company decision making.
Julie Rachel, CableLabs – How Should Big Data Be Implemented?
Julie takes her experience from the cable industry and working with CableLabs, a consortium which provides standards for major cable operators. She began her talk by highlighting how architectures have changed from a siloed view of the data to a holistic view. She recommends that companies begin by thinking about the architecture. She also recommends that you take the short term view with a goal of reaching long term predictive analytics goals.
Julie Rachel’s Top 5 Tips For Big Data Implementation:
- Avoid building the bridge to nowhere.
- Invite others to participate in the data set to gain their insights to build the predictive nature.
- Present analytic findings for a near term funding request – make a quick win with reporting and dashboards. Don’t try to tackle the predictive first.
- Don’t abandon your existing data warehouse.
- Big Data is more than Hadoop – remember the other components, not just storage, that are important too.
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