Data will always lead information, always has, always will. Years ago, we created more data than we could analyze and understand at the time. Today, the same. Tomorrow, the same. The amount of data being created will always lead the ability to get information and understanding from it.
“Big data” is a leading edge description of having more data than can be processed into information, analyzed and understood. Many definitions of big data exist, let’s say 100TB or bigger for the sake of arguement. The volume, variety and velocity of data today is certainly accelerating, no question about that. But go back a couple of decades, and we could have made the same statements every year.
Leading companies in the big data space have solutions available today that can tap into an unprecedented amount of data. Petabyte-scale data warehouses, although not pervasive, are nothing new. Assembling the data is one thing, but analyzing it, presenting it and governing it is another. THE leading company has assembled a full “platform” covering the full breadth – operational analytics, deep / advanced analytics, predictive analytics, federated analytics, Hadoop analytics, streaming analytics… complete with end-to-end information governance.
Here is a sampling of big data use cases. Just skim through this and it’s sure to get your creative juices flowing on what CAN be done in your company. http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/imc14715usen/IMC14715USEN.PDF
Once you’ve skimmed through this, come back here and post your comments on 1) how you are currently using big data today, or 2) what you would like to use big data for.
And you know what? Years from now, the amount of data available will still outpace the ability to analyze it. At that time, will we call it “bigger data”?
