Monday 15 April 2013

Big Data - Don't Believe The Hype?


Public Enemy, (US hip hop group, circa '82 - '94) once released a great song called "Don't Believe the Hype".  Whilst reading the latest survey of IT professionals by SAS and Source Media, along with the countless articles from IT vendors, I am starting to question the amount of hype surrounding 'big data'. 

The recent survey of 339 data management professionals about their organisations' use of data management technology showed few organisations taking advantage of product, customer and other data sources. Just 12 percent  surveyed are currently executing against a big data strategy in daily operations. 

The most common reasons companies are fully exploiting their big data:
  • 21 percent don't know enough about big data.
  • 15 percent don't understand the benefits.
  • 9 percent lack business support.
  • 9 percent lack data quality in existing systems.
The survey also found no real consensus on who owns the data management strategy, with responses ranging from midlevel IT personnel up to the CEO. This confusion likely causes additional challenges in data strategy development and execution.

Most respondents call detailed data analysis a priority for supporting business decisions, along with increased internal reporting and information access. When asked what they want from data solutions, the number one answer was data visualizations and dashboards (73 percent), data profiling (53 percent), and Software as a Service (44 percent). 

Perhaps there still is some way to travel - before believing the hype?

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