What Experts Say on the Significance of Big Data for Enterprises Today
Big Data is a term that is used to describe large data sets that cannot be stored or processed by a single computer. It also refers to the technologies and strategies that are used to analyse large data sets. The scale of defining Big Data is rapidly evolving as data continues to expand in every part of the globe.
While Big Data is nothing but data in enormous volumes, the challenge faced by enterprises is because of the scale which is massive, the need for high computer speed and the inconsistency in the characteristics of Enterprise data that is not the same throughout. What businesses need today, in order to be competitive, is to derive insights from the unstructured data and use it to formulate important business decisions.
Dough Laney from Gartner first presented us with the “3 Vs of Big Data”, namely Volume, Velocity and Variety. The 3 Vs are important because they represent key aspects of the Big Data concept. The fact that Big Data Analytics can process mammoth volumes of information, is what makes it highly relevant in today’s times when enterprises are struggling with large volumes of data. It’s not just the volume of data that is a concern today, but also the rate at which this data is expanding, which makes the term ‘Velocity’ all the more relevant. The third factor that makes Big Data a daunting challenge for enterprises is that it is not a standard, rationalized set of data, but comprises data from various sources, which is available in multiple formats. This is what the term ‘Variety’ represents. The role of a Big Data analytics tool is to find the essence of the unstructured data and derive insights from it.
1] Big Data has evolved a lot over the years. ~ Nick Heudecker
Nick Heudecker is the VP Analyst, Gartner and an expert on Big Data. He talks about how Big Data as a technology in itself has dropped off a few Gartner Hype Cycles – a highly anticipated annual publication by Gartner that offers enterprises key information on when to in a particular new technology in order to get the highest possible benefit. However, the drop only indicates the evolution of Big Data into other more advanced areas of technology. Nick writes in his blog, “The technology landscape continues to change rapidly, but new options look increasingly like old options and old options are evolving quickly.Still thinking about “doing big data?” Don’t make knee-jerk reactions. Think about actual business needs, infrastructure impacts and how your enterprise architectures need to evolve.”
2] Cloud is now the default platform for managing data. ~ Merv Adrian
Merv Adrian is the VP at Gartner and he talks about how the Cloud will be the future of data management across the globe. There is sufficient evidence in the various studies by Gartner that testify the fact that Cloud contributed to a major share of DBMS growth in the last 2 years alone. This has been an influencing factor behind organizations increasingly moving to the Cloud. Merv Adrian concludes in his blog, “The message in our research is simple – on-premises is the new legacy. Cloud is the future. All organizations, big and small, will be using the cloud in increasing amounts. While it is still possible and probable that larger organizations will maintain on-premises systems, increasingly these will be hybrid in nature, supporting both cloud and on-premises.”
3] You need the right infrastructure to collect, store and analyze Big Data. ~ Bernard Marr
Bernard Marr is a best-selling author and a highly respected expert on the intelligent use of data in business. He believes that the ability of enterprises to store, collect and analyze the ever-increasing volumes of data holds the key to the advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT). This puts immense pressure on organizations to make a decision about the data that is of high value and the data that is relatively less important, because storing all the data can add to the cost and create confusion. Bernard Marr writes in his blog, “When collecting and storing huge volumes of data, it's important to consider how the data will be used. Particularly, what data will you need instant access to at any time, and what data is it probably safe to store away in an archive until you have a use for it.”
4] Data Lakes will form an important component in the Big Data world. ~ Jen Stirrup
Jen Stirrup, award-winning and internationally recognized BI and data visualization expert, mentions how data lakes are the future of enterprise data storage. Data Lakes will significantly alter the way businesses perceive data and will work to their benefit by combining all the scattered data and making it easy to analyze. Jen mentions in her blog, “One key opportunity offered by Data Lakes is the ability to break down silos in the organization. The information can be amassed from various sources from different departments and from external sources, and it can be co-located in order to create a wider organizational Big Data program, with a focus on Analytics. Many organizations have a series of dirty data puddles rather than a data lake, and this isn’t conducive to business insights driven by data.”
The Final Word
So, after having a look at all that the data experts have to say, we can safely come to the conclusion that Big Data analytics is something that businesses cannot afford to ignore. The future will be all about innovative ways to make the best use of Big Data and so in order to gain the competitive edge, enterprises must take wake up to the significance of Big Data.
Want to explore how analyzing Big Data can help your business? Our Big Data Consulting services can help you find the answers you need. Visit our website or reach out to us on tdg-marketing@thedigitalgroup.com to get started today.
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