Infrastructure Component Creates Shared Information Access

Consuming big data does not just mean storing it up to see how many terabytes you can hold on to. There are various approaches to extracting insights from big data, which in turn, allows you to profit from the knowledge gainied. Forbes discusses several business strategies in, "3 Steps for Adding Value to Your Big Data Strategy."

The first step is to differentiate between data that needs to be consumed and data that needs to be managed.

According to the article:

Management/storage drives the hype cycles, but is not necessarily what every business needs for a Big Data strategy. If a company is generating large volumes of data then databases and storage could be the correct option, but if a company is trying to gather knowledge from data in many locations and from many sources, then it makes sense to focus on consumption.

Additionally, consumption usually utilizes social and cloud technologies to address specific metrics rather than chasing the largest data set possible. 

A good first step before tackling which kinds of data to collect and where to store it is to ensure all employees will be able to utilize data and the insights produced. This can be accomplished with the help of an infrastructure component that creates unified information access.

Megan Feil, July 23, 2012