Making predictions is easy. Foretelling trends that actually come to pass can be more difficult — unless you’re talking about big data.
It’s no surprise. As we kick off 2014, we’re seeing a ton being written about big data. And as we look at technology drivers for this coming year, it’s clear to see why.
According to a new Forrester Consulting whitepaper commissioned by Savvis, 70 percent of IT decision-makers say big data analytics is or will be a key priority in 2014.
Why are big data projects taking off? Simple: Companies realize that the immense amount of data lying dormant within and beyond their corporate repositories can have a profound impact on nearly every aspect of business, from operational efficiencies and product development to customer interactions and management processes. Yet, according to Forrester, most organizations currently analyze only 12 percent of their data.
That’s a lot of untapped value.
With IDC forecasting the global universe of data to nearly double every two years, reaching 40,000 exabytes or 40 trillion gigabytes by 2020, the data that companies want – and need – to access and analyze is only going to get more massive. And now that Hadoop has made it easier to capture, store and analyze vast quantities of data, many more companies can leverage this platform for big data proof of concepts.
Currently, only 16 percent of Forrester’s surveyed respondents use Hadoop in production. Much of this gap can be attributed to the difficulty in moving initiatives out of the concept phase. Doing so demands a whole new level of solutions that incorporate proven global infrastructure and specialized expertise, as I’ve outlined before.
Forrester identifies seven key qualities of big data production-ready environments for enterprises to look for: manageability, availability, performance, scalability, adaptability, security and cost. You can learn more about these recommendations through this webinar replay, featuring myself and Mike Gualtieri, principal analyst at Forrester Research.
Big data programs have the potential to drive results at nearly every level of a business’ operations, from organizational efficiencies and development to customer interactions and management processes. Get the insight and tools you need to truly leverage data to anticipate and respond to dynamics in the marketplace.
Milan Vaclavik is senior director and solution lead for big data at Savvis, a
