Saturday, April 28, 2012

The (Big Data) Café


Ever gone on a long road trip? The aircon (data issues management) is barely cooling you down. The windows (data optimization) are stuck, the water bottles (data migration project budgets) are empty, and you're not even half way through your road (-map)...

But wait! What luck! A little town is coming up. It's got a funny name: "Big Data". Well, in any case you are sure to find a small café. Your data business case is dried up , your stewards are querying on bad data fumes (again) and you need a fresh data strategy to demonstrate business value and fuel up your operational and strategic budget...

There it is: "The Big Data Café". It has big sign saying: "Today's special: Get a Yotta (10^24) Data Warehouses with live links to ALL the universe's data feeds real-time. Buy one today and get 10 models with 2 million predictions on the hottest trends in the world for the next 100 years!".

Wow !!! you've got to have some of that, and what a perfect timing as well. Needless to say you stop and walk in. As you sit down at a conference table, you notice a lot of other (tired) drivers. The are all busy munching away of some work-stream and enjoying the flavor of data mining analytics. You now recall hearing about this café, and how people praise its wonderful deserts (no, this is not a misspelling). They are rich with Fata Morganas (promises of value add) , and if you navigate carefully, you will pick up some fruits from the various oases (gold nuggets of real value).

Then you remember something else, Teneo Vulgo - the destination.

Should you grab some takeaways (strategies, contacts and techniques) or settle in for a bit longer and maybe order that special. It will take longer to digest, and you wonder if it is really the right menu item for you.

What happens next is up to you. It depends on the business you support and their appetite. It also depends on what you need to deliver in terms of you road map.

Eventually, however, you will finish your meal, and get back on the road. Is it better to speed up your journey? or slow down and take more value along the way? That is for you to answer...

In case you did not get my message - Big Data is not necessarily bad, but I do not believe we will remain there. The globalization and competitiveness will signal us to Teneo Vulgo, where unstructured data will eventually become meaningless (not because we don't care, but because ALL relevant data will be qualified by default). My only suggestion is that we become vigilant not to exclude opportunities to diversify our communal knowledge (in other words not to discount alternative approaches to analyzing, representing and managing data). Based on the theory of evolution - species that do not diversify their genome pool, tend to get extinct.

Enjoy the Café while it is still relevant to you, but I do not recommend trying the special....