Big Data Might Not Be for All Businesses
July 16, 2013
Data professional and Connexica blogger Richard Lewis is beginning to suspect that small and medium companies are being swindled. In “Is Big Data All That?” he concludes that only large corporations really benefit from the trend, and that for everyone else it is a bunch of ballyhoo. Interesting assertion. Lewis explains:
“I find all of the current hype around big data and the promotion of technologies that require dozens of servers, armies of techies and even then professors of programming to get at the data a bit of a scam. At the end of the day it’s about making money, customer satisfaction and self-improvement so it’s not size that matters it’s being able to zero in on the facts… finding the information that matters. I am concentrating on finding out the facts and masking out the noise. With all this ‘big data’ we are creating a maelstrom where it’s increasingly difficult to see the facts through the mist. Big data is for the likes of Coca cola for McDonald’s for Walmart. For everyone else big data is noise. Concentrate on getting the most out of what we have before seeking solace from social chatter.”
Lewis is not the first to question the push for all companies to embrace big data. Surely there are some smaller entities for which the technology is helpful, but perhaps more for which it is a waste of resources. Are businesses harming themselves by jumping on the bandwagon without a clear idea of what they expect to gain? Does data extracted from social media really hold valuable insights for every organization?
Maybe companies that have not yet taken the big data plunge would do well to step back, and closely consider their unique needs before going forward.
Cynthia Murrell, July 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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