The Last Mile Problem - Data Fluency: Empowering Your Organization with Effective Data Communication - page 6

Big data—that is, the volume , velocity , and variety of information currently
being gathered and stored 4 —represents the next great frontier, not only for
business, but also for other sectors, including government, education, and
healthcare. Anecdotes about the sophisticated use of data can catch your
imagination and excitement:

Billy Beane's use of statistics to help the Oakland A's acquire undervalued players,
an act that led to a playoff berth for a team that spent one-third the amount
on salary as the New York Yankees.

Google analyzing Internet search patterns to provide early warning signals for
flu and dengue fever outbreaks.

The United States Federal Government funding initiatives across departments
to “greatly improve the tools and techniques needed to access, organize, and
glean discoveries from huge volumes of digital data.” 5

Technology professionals, business leaders and academics all view data as
a means to forecasting, reduce costs, identify new business opportunities,
improve research, and improve sales efficiency and effectiveness. As a result, big
data startups have flooded the market. Venture capitalists are investing more
than one billion dollars a year in the sector, funding hundreds of companies. 6

The possibilities truly seem endless. Imagine, all your enterprise data, seam-
lessly integrated, available anywhere, anytime, just waiting to be translated
into dollars. In this regard, data truly does seem like the new oil. In fact, there
have been many metaphors used to describe our current era of big data. Tyler
Bell, who is a big data industry analyst for O'Reilly, classified these according
to the following typology:

▪ Natural resources (“the new oil,” “goldrush” and of course “data min-

ing”): Highlights the singular value inherent in data, tempered by the effort
required to realize its potential.

▪ Natural disasters (“data tornado,” “data deluge,” data tidal wave”): Frames

data as a problem of near-biblical scale, with subtle undertones of assured
disaster if proper and timely preparations are not considered.

▪ Industrial devices (“data exhaust,” “firehose,” “Industrial Revolution”):

A convenient grab-bag of terminologies that usually portrays data as a
mechanism created and controlled by us, but one that will prove harmful
if used incorrectly. 7