Context and Infrastructure Software Solutions Churn Out Insights from Big Data

Big data has gone mainstream, but it remains important that we keep in mind tips from the professionals whose businesses depend dearly on big data to survive. These are the tried and true methods outlined in the recent GigaOM article, "5 Ideas to Help Everyone Make the Most of Big Data."

One of the bits of advice is derived from plain old common sense; analysts should remember that context adds value. Looking at recommendation services from Netflix and Pandora make that easy to see.

According to the article, big data also makes science easier:

However, big data lets data scientists use simpler modeling techniques such as decision trees and regression, while letting the volume of data account for accuracy (and statistical significance) rather than a super-complex algorithm. And, Wiesenthal noted, using general-purpose big data technologies such as Hadoop means data scientists can develop and test models faster because their infrastructure isn’t tuned to a specific algorithm or problem type, and it’s designed to perform well against large data sets.

Not many enterprise software solutions were not specifically called out in this article, but we can see clearly that infrastructure components are the golden ticket. This kind of innovative technology helps translate the value that lies inherent in raw big data.

Megan Feil, September 18, 2012

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