When people and organisations talk about putting information in “the cloud,” data is moved outside their premises, often to a service rented on-demand from large-scale providers like Google, Microsoft, or Amazon. Cloud storage enables people to gather, retain and generate huge amounts of data – and to derive actionable intelligence from it.
Technological innovation has turned this information into a valuable corporate asset.
With the usual caveats, about prediction being an inexact science, and “the value of shares can go down, as well as up”…
Almost two-thirds of 720 companies surveyed by Gartner last year said they were funding Big Data gathering and analysis projects, or planned to, by the end of 2013.
A.T. Kearney forecasts global spending on Big Data hardware, software and services will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 30% through 2018, reaching a total market of $114bn. The average business is expected to spend $8m on related initiatives this year.
The high level of interest and hype surrounding analytics, Big Data and business intelligence (BI) has led to a proliferation of market projections and forecasts.
Simplified APA tools (less flexible than standalone statistical models, yet with more intuitive graphical user interfaces and easier-to-use features) are fuelling adoption.
Virtualisation is the practice of running event or process simulations on a desktop, or through the cloud. It can be useful in creating models or scenarios for new products or scheduled events.
For IT administrators, virtualisation cuts down on hardware costs and maintenance, but adds a host of new management tasks. Performing each job of monitoring, provisioning or maintenance is not only time-consuming, but leaves room for human error.
For years organisations have been grappling with data backup and recovery issues. Like the need to decide what data needs to be kept in near-term storage for easy access, what can live at a second level where it’s still accessible (perhaps not immediately), and what can be kept in deep archives.
The rise of Big Data brings fresh dilemmas. Besides scale, there are characteristics of Big Data management that distinguish it from traditional approaches.
Big Data analysis often involves large data stores that are really only useful for a short period. Once the analysis is over, the data has served its purpose. The question arises as to whether it’s worth keeping at all, much less backing up.
Wearable technology is the latest tech fad, with more and more people choosing to adopt it in the consumer space. As this infographic from Tech X shows, for the most part adoption remains centred around health related wearables which boost our motivation when it comes to taking daily exercise and monitor things such as sleep patterns.
The rest of 2014 and 2015 is set to see a further rise in wearable adoption, as companies such as Samsung and Apple fight to enter the market on a high. Whilst the Pebble is still regarded by most as the smartwatch to own, this coming year will see a host of new devices enter the market. Exciting times for those who love their gadgets, which according to the image is around 48% when it comes to who will buy.
Of course, it’s not all just health devices and smartwatches. Google Glass will soon release the
There’s value in organisations being able to analyse social media information and compile profiles to better target their customers. But creating, documenting, and retrieving vast amounts of data is one thing. Understanding it is an entirely different matter.
Measuring ‘likes’ or searching for keywords and phrases is pretty straightforward – a “sentiment analysis”. You might be tempted to develop a marketing strategy directly derived from this.
But there’ll always be examples of impulse buys, or snap decisions in the heat of the moment. And data samples may include information that’s not so easy to quantify – like pictures or videos.
In fact, the majority of actions will be based on the context surrounding them. Brand A might cost less, but B offers greater satisfaction. The sports car looks great, but what about the kids? And so on.
If a data analysis tool can’t provide further context around the solutions it offers, it’s at best, an expensive waste of time.
And, why should you care? Well, the partnership brings together two companies from opposing ends of the data analysis / management spectrum – and could light the way for future collaborations in this sector.
GoodData is a rising star in the field of cloud analytics. The venture-backed start-up recently introduced an Open Analytics Platform to provide a comprehensive set of services spanning the entire analytics lifecycle, from initial collection of records to data processing, visualisation and business intelligence.
With analysis conducted on the fly, GoodData is designed to be very easy for even non-technical business people to use.
Vertica is a high-performance columnar database which Hewlett-Packard acquired from Vertica Systems in 2011. Built to handle really large amounts of data, Vertica is better tailored to address the performance and scalability requirements of enterprise customers.
A key challenge faced by organisations today is the need for speed, high availability, and flexibility of data and analytics. Traditional solutions weren’t built to handle the variety and volume of data flowing through data-driven companies.
Amid increasing demand for its service, GoodData has in effect signed up as a customer of HP Vertica,
The “Quantified Self” movement has emerged with the rise of wearable devices like Fitbit, Jawbone Up and Nike Fuelband. These gadgets help people monitor their daily health: activities like steps taken, stairs climbed, sleep, and water consumption.
Some devices deliver health tips through a corresponding smartphone or desktop app. The idea being that the more we know about ourselves, the healthier we can be.
Not only are we monitoring our bodies, we’re slapping instruments on everything else. Homes are being monitored by tools like Nest.
Then, there’s social media. Facebook encourages us to post data about where we are, what we’re doing, and who we’re with. When you Tweet, you broadcast your location, what you’re reading or thinking, and often your photograph.
The movement has seen organisations begin using data and insights from personal tracking apps given to their employees (or which they’re encouraged to sign up for).
Originally a sort of online personal journal, web logs or blogs have since evolved into a powerful method of communication. Breaking news, insider perspectives, whatever; there’s an infinite number, covering any subject.
Modern businesses have a huge amount of choice when it comes to technology products these days. The power of the cloud means that less storage space on the device is needed now, which further increases choice. It’s possible now to work on wafer thin devices that need very little in terms of power, or of course you can choose to have a laptop or a device that’s powered almost entirely by the cloud.
Chromebooks are lightweight laptop computers which run on Chrome OS, an operating system made by Google. Designed primarily to be used online, they’re best suited to professionals who already use services like Gmail and Google Docs.
Chrome OS is similar to Windows or Mac OS X, but sits on a Linux platform. It’s
