Big Data Remorse
October 3, 2013
With all the big talk about big data, one might think the technology is an automatic road to riches for every company. One would be mistaken; ReadWrite reports, “Big Data Investments Currently Earn 50 Cents for Every Dollar Invested.” Why the disparity between expectations and results? It seems that the hype has persuaded many businesses to leap into big data before figuring out just how to make use of it.
That 50 cents on the dollar is, of course, an average. Writer Matt Asay cites preliminary findings from Wikibon, which found that 46 percent of organizations using big data tech have met with only partial success, and two percent have had no success at all. He writes:
“As Wikibon points out, one of the biggest reasons for Big Data failure is that ‘enterprises invest in Big Data technology such as Hadoop without specific and measurable business applications tied to the projects.’ They hear it’s a big deal and throw money at it without really understanding what they’re hoping to achieve.”
Asay bolsters that conclusion with a recent Gartner report, which he covers in depth here. So, what is a company to do? The article advises:
“The best Big Data projects, according to Wikibon’s research, ‘are generally not initiated by IT but driven by line-of-business departments, often marketing, and focus on small but strategic use cases.’ They tap into in-house expertise and are realistic about how much they can do with the people they have. Such projects tend to start small, iterate and scale out based on early wins. . . .
“Given that all of the best Big Data technologies are open source, it’s easy to try before you buy, and get up-to-speed on the best technologies for your requirements.”
So, IT departments can consider the ball out of their court, at least until marketing brings it up. From they should proceed with caution to avoid big data remorse.
Cynthia Murrell, October 03, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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