10 More Powerful Facts About Big Data
How big is big data's impact? Check out part two of our fact fest on big data's trends and trials.
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I know what you Hadoop-ed last summer:
Welcome to big data facts, the sequel. When we recently posted a slideshow examining the latest trends in big data, readers responded in a big way. You want more facts and context on big data -- though the term itself defies an easy definition and even makes some people groan. It's certainly more than Hadoop, although the open source software framework with the cute elephant mascot is the dominant big data platform to date. And its meaning will only evolve as billions of Internet-enabled sensors, appliances, and other devices begin sharing data in the coming years.
How do you define big data? And what does it mean to your organization? Consider these divergent observations from industry leaders:
Scott Schlesinger, senior VP at Capgemini, December 2013: "There's no doubt that companies' pursuits of big data initiatives have the best intentions to improve operational decision making across the enterprise. That being said, companies shouldn't get stuck on the term 'big data.' The true initiative and what they ultimately need to be concerned with is how they're implementing better data management practices that account for the variety and complexity of the data being acquired for analysis."
Gary Nakamura, CEO of Concurrent, December 2013: "More Hadoop projects will be swept under the rug as businesses devote major resources to their big data projects before doing their due diligence, which results in a costly, disillusioning project failure."
Joel Young, chief technical officer of Digi International, on companies that want to implement a big data strategy -- but aren't sure why (March 2014): "It's like, okay, let's back up here. What is the biggest problem you have? Why do you want to collect all this data? What kind of insight are you looking for? Just saying 'insight' and 'innovation' is a wonderful thing, but first and foremost you need to focus."
Kathy Reece, business analytics leader at IBM Global Business Services, commenting on findings from a November 2013 IBM survey: "It's interesting that only one quarter of CEOs or COOs are the lead advocates for the use of analytic insights, even though they realize that innovation and revenue growth is the chief value of applying analytics. So we need to get more senior leadership advocating for the use of analytics."
Chris Taylor, marketing director for TIBCO, March 2013: "There's been a perception that if you get enough data, you can find something in it that's meaningful. I think that's a big mistake. The answer might be not big data at all, but small data."
Which of these statements do you agree with? Let us know in the comments section.
Now explore our stats-filled look at big data trends and a few big questions. Which sports league is trailing the big data race? How will Internet of Things change the landscape? And is data quality getting any better? Dig in.
(Image sources: InformationWeek, Microsoft, US-Analytics)
With all the hoopla surrounding big data and its equally buzz-worthy sibling, the Internet of Things, it's easy to assume the IoT has become a dinner table topic. Not so. Not even close, in fact. SOASTA, which tests traffic loads for websites and apps, recently polled 2,000 Americans about cloud computing and the IoT. It found that nearly 3 of 4 respondents (73%) had never heard of the Internet of Things. When explained to them, however, two-thirds were excited by the potential of consumer-oriented IoT devices, including fitness gear, home appliances, autos, and even GPS for pets.
(Image source: Microsoft)
Sure, big data provides actionable insights. But what if those insights are derived from bad data? Experian reports that US organizations on average believe that 25% of their data is inaccurate. And yet 93% of the companies surveyed say data is key to their marketing success. Human error is generally the culprit here. Not only can bad data muck up marketing strategies, it can have dire consequences in more serious areas as well. Interestingly, 91% of survey respondents say they've invested in data-quality initiatives in the past year.
(Image source: qas.com)
The spinning disk is your daddy's tech? In mobile devices and laptops, yes, but in the world of enterprise storage, the hard disk drive (HDD) rules. IDC predicts the venerable HDD's share of installed bytes worldwide will soar to 66% by 2017, up from around 20% in 2000. Optical and tape drives will continue their decline, of course, while flash storage will rise steadily. Various developments are driving this surging demand for storage, including the rise of social media, cloud services, and HD (and soon 4K) video content, Cleversafe founder Chris Gladwin told InformationWeek in February.
(Image source: IDC)
Venture capital is flowing into big data startups. Intel in March announced it was investing $740 million in Hadoop software distributor Cloudera, which earlier that month raised another $180 million in new VC backing. Springtime was also good for big data analytics company Platfora, which got $38 million in VC dough. As the IDC chart above shows, VC funding in big data has been rising steadily for years. Allied Market Research recently estimated that the $2 billion Hadoop market (as of 2013) will soar to $50 billion by 2020.
(Image source: IDC infographic)
Advancements in WiFi technology will help spur big data growth. Huawei last month announced it had successfully tested 10-Gbps WiFi service in laboratory trials at its Shenzhen, China campus. While this flavor of superfast WiFi isn't expected to be available until 2018 at the earliest, pending slow-moving global standards agreements and chipset availability, it could enable a new slate of big data applications in both consumer and enterprise markets. In fact, WiFi's role will extend beyond Internet access, says Salah Nassar, a senior manager at Ruckus Wireless. Potential enterprise uses include WiFi-based location analytics to improve business intelligence, customer engagement, and security operations.
(Image source: MEC Networks Corp.)
The chief data officer (CDO) is emerging as a major player in the C-suite, as corporations add the position to manage their big data stockpiles. The CDO is an organization's data curator, the manager who oversees data mining and administrative functions. This person also develops enterprise-wide policies for data standards and procedures -- a more efficient approach than having separate data fiefdoms scattered throughout the company. Sixty-five percent of CDO positions have been created in only the past three years, according to research by Yang Lee, a professor at Northeastern University's D'Amore-McKim School of Business, and Randy Bean, CEO of management consultancy NewVantage Partners.
(Image sources: thedmpl.com, spotfire.tibco.com/blog, infocus.emc.com)
The tag team of athletics and analytics isn't new -- just as anyone who recalls the machine-like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV. But in this Moneyball era, the big data approach to professional sports is the future--particularly with the emergence of wearable fitness bands and similar health-monitoring devices. Hockey, however, may find this trend less appealing, reports icrunchdata.
In an interview with Boden Westover of Catapult Sports, an Australia-based analytics firm that captures performance data via sensors tucked into athletes' jerseys, the news site notes that Catapult's client list includes 8 NFL teams, 5 NBA teams but only 1 NHL team -- the Philadelphia Flyers. Why? "I would also say ice hockey is more of a 'pure' sport, like soccer, in that they like to think of their game as an old-fashioned game played on a frozen pond -- meaning they've been slower to embrace technology," said Westover, adding that NHL teams' lower budgets and reduced staff are factors too.
(Image sources: Moneyball: www.imdb.com; hockey player Dustin Byfuglien: hockeyfanfiction.com)
Big data's reputation in global disease surveillance has taken a bit of a hit in recent months. When Google launched its Flu Trends website in 2008, it claimed the automated service -- by analyzing aggregated search queries -- could detect disease outbreaks faster than global health agencies. But in the 2012-13 flu season, Google Flu Trends overestimated the incidence of flu in the US, a result of its algorithms not being tuned to account for "heightened media coverage" of flu outbreaks, Google said. This led skeptics to doubt that big data is superior to conventional data gathering and analysis.
The Flu Trends snafu may have been bad news for big data, but it hasn't slowed research in data-driven disease surveillance. Apps like Sickweather scan social networks for signs of illness in the user's area. And the HealthMap website collects data from a variety of sources -- including eyewitness and official reports, online discussions, and news aggregators -- to provide real-time insights on infectious diseases.
(Image sources: www.sickweather.com, www.google.org/denguetrends)
Hadoop is a threat to the "cushy profit margins" of major data warehouse vendors including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Teradata, but it won't replace the data warehouse, says Wikibon. A new survey by the open source research group shows that just over 60% of organizations with Hadoop deployments have migrated at least one workload from a conventional data warehouse or mainframe to the big data platform. Many of these workloads involve business intelligence reporting -- the "bread and butter" of the enterprise data warehouse, the survey says. So why are companies switching to Hadoop? The platform cuts costs and can store/process a wide variety of data, including structured, semi-structured, and unstructured bits.
(Image source: wikibon.org)
Hadoop and its offshoots will continue to dominate the big data market this year, but data-management needs are creating demand for competing technologies as well. A new IDC report predicts that NoSQL databases will gain traction beyond the early adopter phase and develop alongside Hadoop and relational databases. The study, "Move Over Hadoop: Emerging Database Technologies for Tackling Big Data Problems," asserts that an unmet need for application scalability, cloud app development, broader data collection, streaming data management, and other factors are driving demand for big data technologies beyond Hadoop.
(Image sources: Intel.com, opensourceforu.com)
Hadoop and its offshoots will continue to dominate the big data market this year, but data-management needs are creating demand for competing technologies as well. A new IDC report predicts that NoSQL databases will gain traction beyond the early adopter phase and develop alongside Hadoop and relational databases. The study, "Move Over Hadoop: Emerging Database Technologies for Tackling Big Data Problems," asserts that an unmet need for application scalability, cloud app development, broader data collection, streaming data management, and other factors are driving demand for big data technologies beyond Hadoop.
(Image sources: Intel.com, opensourceforu.com)
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