Communications of the ACM
Business Opportunities Come From Big Data
Credit: ZNetLive
Big data offers vast potential to disrupt existing businesses and create new ones, but to realize its potential inexpensive storage, faster processing, smarter software, and larger and more diverse data sets are needed. The advent of massively parallel computing in the early 2000s was a key technological breakthrough that helped accelerate data analysis.
In addition, over the last 20 years, the cost of storing a gigabyte of data has fallen from more than $1,000 to about six cents per gigabyte. Although many developers use Hadoop to build software that analyses big data, experts say that even programs based on Hadoop only scratch the surface of the potential of big data.
"We're getting into very advanced statistical processing and what people call machine-learning, where the algorithms get smarter with more data in this cyclical model," says GreenPlum founder Scott Yara.
Analysts also say that as the data sets increase in size, big data applications become even more powerful. "The real business opportunity is found in the ability to put more data together and let the data sources refute or reinforce each other," say Gartner's Mark Beyer and Doug Laney. "In this way, big data makes organizations smarter and more productive."
From The Financial Times
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2012 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found