Putting big data to work across the business Posted on : Sep 22 - 2017

Big data is shifting to the mainstream of the business technology conversation. Where once it was a specialism for certain departments it is becoming more common in all areas of business and across different industries.

In part this trend is possible because of a fusing of three separate types of technology – cloud, Internet of Things and big data.

IoT creates big data even for industries which previously survived without processing much information. Manufacturing, retail and agriculture are all being transformed by IoT.

But the cloud makes it possible to deal with this data for less cost and with fewer specialised staff.

The cloud also provides a variety of off-the-shelf solutions for dealing with big data challenges.

And finally the cloud provides the instant scale to deal with storing and processing data even if it arrives all at once and must be dealt with fast, like year-end financial information.

But big data is also increasingly ‘working under the hood’.

Analytics which is embedded at the edge of networks, where the data is collected, can react quickly and automatically without human intervention. This might not seem like true big data but it is working on algorithms created in a lab somewhere and not reinvented for every application.

The point of big data projects is to provide insight and answers for the business not just to create data lakes for the sake of it.

Along with IoT the other new provider of data for many enterprises is mobile. Whether directly collecting data from users devices via an app or analysing web traffic from mobile devices this is an area which will keep on growing.

First steps to spreading big data across the organisation.

Businesses can take several practical steps to take best advantage of these changes. View More