Monthly Archives: October 2012

Big Hype and Big Reality

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I was fascinated to read recently that analysts at Gartner have reported on the nature of hype in the IT market. (Yes, my plane journey was that dull.) They looked specifically at cloud computing and the various technologies and services that are related to it.

Researchers have actually developed a life cycle which reflects the current state of particular buzzwords, such as big data and the cloud, and then considers which point on the scale a technology has reached and what the future might hold for it.

Big Data and the Cloud: Should You Believe the Hype?

At the moment, Gartner believes that big data is one of the most heavily publicised and talked-about technologies, both in terms of expectations and what it can actually deliver.  So that’s reassuring, since I work in that field.

Interestingly, if big data follows the standard life cycle then this peak will followed by a trough, during which time expectations are adjusted and realities assessed as businesses and users acclimatise to the actual capabilities of a previously over-hyped platform or service.  Don’t believe me?  Well, think back to the great dreams of Java (write once, deploy everywhere – remember that?)

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Big Data: An IT Manager’s Cut Out and Keep Guide

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Will future historians look back and note that this was the decade the big data floodgates blew wide open? 90 percent of the world’s data has been created in the last two years, so why wouldn’t this be seen as the time the tide swelled and the wave of big data surged forward? IT managers, faced with the prospect of their company adopting a big data strategy, are having to think about ways of dealing with this torrent of multi-structured data sets and don’t have the benefit of hindsight. This is something real; something they’re having to think about every day. And how IT managers react to this oncoming big data wave will decide whether they sink, swim or ride it all the way towards glory (well, glory within the confines of their company and wider industry — but glory nevertheless).

The huge volumes of information people are creating and storing digitally, and the data that is subsequently generated from that information, is changing the face of business today. A gigabyte of stored data can generate more than a petabyte of related data, and companies that are able to extract value from this are in a powerful position to drive growth.

The wave of big data could possibly wash away businesses unprepared for it, so we’ve put together a primer for IT managers — something that you can cut out and keep, or pass on to your colleagues.

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The Real Big Data Podcast with Mark Sear: Fast (Big) Data

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Websites, newspapers, pubs: big data is being talked about everywhere. And, in this episode of The Voice of Big Data, it’s being talked about in the back of a taxi travelling across the cobbled streets of Brussels.

And what better place to discuss some of the pressing issues surrounding big data today, including Europe’s reaction to big data; fast big data, or fast data, the next generation of big data; and big data in sport.

It’s a bumpy ride, but it’s worth coming along. Listen to the podcast below and submit your questions to the podcast@therealbigdata.com or leave a comment here on The Real Big Data site itself.

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Big Data Case Study: Predicting the Weather with 3TIER

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Where would you build a wind-farm? Somewhere windy, obviously. But how would you know how windy that area was a year ago, two years ago, three? How would you know when the windiest time of year was? How would you predict the weather for today, the weather for tomorrow, the weather for next year and beyond? The answer: talk to 3TIER.

3TIER, an industry leading company dealing in renewables risk management, helps businesses decide where to place their wind-farms, solar-farms and hydro-dams by giving them all the information they need to assess the future energy potential of any location. How do they do this? Big data.

Nature kicks out an infinite amount of data and the more 3TIER can process the more it can help its customers. But, not so long ago, its infrastructure wasn’t able to scale, meaning it couldn’t meet the demands of its workflow. This limited 3TIER’s ability to grow its customer base. So, it turned to EMC to provide it with a big data solution. To read about how EMC helped 3TIER to predict the storm and allow its business to grow, open the case study below.

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The Big Data Insider News Bulletin: 18/10/12

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Read on for the most recent news stories to come out of the world of big data. This week we take a look at all the latest events, a novel visualisation from Amsterdam Schiphol airport, NASA’s most recent big data competition and the ways big data can help to improve daily life in the countries with serious mosquito problems. Take a look now for this news and more.


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