Database Reference
In-Depth Information
1
What Is Big Data?
The term Big Data is a bit of a misnomer. Truth be told, we're not even big
fans of the term—despite the fact that it's so prominently displayed on the
cover of this topic—because it implies that other data is somehow small
(it might be) or that this particular type of data is large in size (it can be, but
doesn't have to be). For this reason, we think it's best to devote an entire
chapter to the task of explaining exactly what Big Data is.
Why Is Big Data Important?
Before you try to understand what Big Data is, you should know why Big
Data matters to business. In a nutshell, the quest for Big Data is directly
attributable to analytics, which has evolved from being a business initiative to
a business imperative .
In fact, we'd say that analytics has caused a bifurcation of industry partici-
pants: some are leaders and some are followers. It's hard to overlook the impact
that analytics has had on organizations during the last decade or so. IBM's
Institute of Business Value, in partnership with MIT's Sloan Management Review ,
published the results of a study in a paper called The New Intelligent Enterprise.
This paper concluded that organizations that achieve a competitive advantage
with analytics are over two times more likely to substantially outperform
their industry peers. Think about that for a moment: Analytics (specifically,
analytics enriched with Big Data) will help you to outperform your competitors,
so if your business is simply curious about Big Data, and your competitors are
more than curious—well, you get the point.
3
 
Search WWH ::




Custom Search