There’s no shortage of writing about big data, analytics, and where the two are headed. Forbes has noted that most big data market initiatives either focus on some aspect of customer engagement or on improving operational performance. But you probably didn’t need Forbes to tell you. It’s kind of in the air.
Grappling with Big Data’s Potential
One thing we notice is that most organizations are still grappling with how to realize big data’s potential. As Gartner analyst Nick Heudecker has pointed out, “There are challenges in governance, infrastructure, scale, and skills that create a real gap.” We agree.
But at the same time, big data market initiatives are definitely becoming more mainstream. Projects are being funded and organizations at the head of the curve are seeing positive ROI. We think it won’t be too long before most big data projects are self funding.
A Sharper Focus
It’s way too early to say that the big data market is mature. But it is maturing. And as it does, projects are more sharply defined. Organizations are looking at specific use cases for big data analytics — fraud prevention, security, customer engagement, or maintenance, repair and operations (MRO).
They’re also looking to quantify the value of information. Sure, data storage has become cheap enough to support a “keep everything” approach. But, at some point, you want to know what’s valuable and what’s the equivalent of digital junk.
A Voice of Reason: Dresner Advisory Services
Prior to starting his own Dresner Advisory Services in 2007, Howard Dresner spent thirteen years at Gartner, where he was a research fellow and lead analyst for business intelligence. He also served as chief strategy officer at Hyperion.
Throughout the year, Dresner Advisory Services conducts primary research studies that evaluate the business intelligence and analytics marketplace. It started covering big data analytics about two years ago because prior to that the hype factor was simply off the charts.
Instead of framing its research by the three Vs — volume, velocity and variety —or some other convenient device, it decided to look at the tools and solutions that were deeply integrated with the Hadoop ecosystem. So, for its Big Data Analytics Market Study, the firm collected responses about these topics from just over 200 respondents globally.
In the Zoomdata Master Class, State of the Market, you can hear Howard Dresner explain the significance of the study’s findings. There are seven videos in the series and they leave no big data stone unturned.
