Information Management Solutions Mark the First Step in Realizing Positive Contributions from Big Data

Big Data hits the headlines for a reason other than the sheer magnitude of its existence. In fact, big data solutions are expected to make contributions to bettering our society at-large outlined in "10 Ways Big Data Is Remaking Energy."

With the help of management and analytics, big data can reduce energy consumption, prevent energy loss, and even add more clean power to the grid. The article offers the following thoughts on how big data will impact clean power: 

One of the main goals for the smart grid is to enable the addition of more variable clean power, which is far more unreliable than fossil fuels (the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow 24/7). Analytics crunching the data from a utilities’ energy supply and demand can help make clean power a little less variable, by being able to moreaccurately predict the environmental conditions, as well as more accurately assess demand from energy users.

While these are only projections now, in due time various topics on this list will be realized. If they do manifest, we will have information management solutions to thank first and foremost for storing and integrating raw data and turning it into actionable information ready to be processed.

Megan Feil, February 2, 2012

Woven Together Seamlessly, Enterprise Search and Mobile Data Management Offer Security and Access

IBM, the stalwart of traditional enterprise software has chosen to bite the bullet that the consumerization of IT has shot into the universe. Security Week reports on their mobility management roll out with "IBM Launches Secure Mobile Device Management Solution."

As expected, concern for security measures remains a top priority for IBM's products and services. According to the article:

IBM's solution is somewhat standard and offers similar features as other mobile device management solutions. Endpoint Management for Mobile Devices will allow for selective remote wipe, should the device be lost or stolen, password enforcement policies, encryption, and VPN. In addition, it includes NAC abilities, which will force devices not in compliance with a given policy or rule to align as expected, or be denied access to things such as email or network resources.

IDC's latest report stated that by the end of 2011 almost half of mobile devices used in the enterprise were brought under BYOD policies. Obviously, this can pose great risk to the entire company if there is no mobility management solution in place. Tightly weaving together enterprise search with data management that stretches from traditional devices to mobility is bound to gain even more traction.

Megan Feil, February 2, 2012

Knowing Your Limits When It Comes to Big Data Is Important; BI Solutions Will Help Exceed Them

Fast Company furthers the narrative that IT media sources are constructing in regards to big data. "Why Big Data Won't Make You Smart, Rich or Pretty" comes from an author who has no problem with the enterprise utilizing big data, but believes that the concept is getting too much hype which will inherently make customers believe that vendors have over-promised and under-delivered.

Reports from the The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) show that 90 percent of the IT professionals they surveyed are familiar with big data analytics; furthermore 34 percent responded that they already applied analytics to Big Data.

Overconfidence is another issue that may play a factor in customer's beliefs that big data solutions do not measure up to their expectations. According to the article this trait already exists in other capacities:

In other words, they don’t recognize their own inability to forecast the future, nor do they recognize the inherent volatility of markets. Both of these traits portend big problems for Big Data as humans code their assumptions about the world into algorithms: people don’t understand their personal limitations, nor do they recognize if a model is good or not. 

While the intelligence of people, partly in knowing their own limitations, must play a role in benefiting from big data, business intelligence solutions are bound to help them out.

Megan Feil, February 1, 2012

Search Evolves Into Immediate Discovery With Agile Infrastructure + Apps

Even if something offers a search service, it is now known as discovery in the marketing language. Groovebug, the personalized music magazine + discovery engine is a prime example of this change-over. Discovery, or search, does not have to be a task unto itself. It is now simply something to augment a user's experience to broaden their horizons within the realm of their already pre-constructed interests.

Groovebug mainly functions as a flipboard for music. The Groovebug blog describes the app's service:

Groovebug is the first personalized music magazine designed for the iPad. It helps users discover new music and connect with their favorite artists. The app scans the user’s library and transforms related, yet disparate content from the cloud into a fluid interactive magazine experience.

We see endless potential for this app mixed with a fair amount of competition from other music apps that also combine social and discovery features. Spotify comes to mind, for example.

Regardless of this particular app's case, we believe the trend is important to note as it takes shape in the arena of apps. We have already seen the evolution of basic workplace search to agile enterprise search infrastructure + apps enabling relevant information to appear in front of a user's mouse.

Megan Feil, February 1, 2012

Information Management Solutions Needed to Extract Full Potential Value from Big Data

Many enterprise IT media mavens are talking about big data--categorizing, labeling, analyzing, and hypothesizing about it. Gigaom's recent article discusses "Why The Era of Big Data Is Just Beginning." However, based on the content of the article a better title would involve the supposed big data bubble burst.

According to the article, it is a waste of time for analysts to crunch data. They should be using their talents to forecast trends, patterns, and determine strategy.

The article states:

For an example even closer to home, [EVP and CMO for EMC Corp. Jeremy] Burton said companies like EMC would gladly pay market researchers to crunch their own research data rather than just delivering Excel spreadsheets for EMC’s internal analysts to massage. “We spend forever crunching IDC data. Why doesn’t IDC do that and sell it to us as a service?. We’d buy it and combine it with other data sources,” Burton said.

It is our opinion that business intelligence exists because of its ability to produce specific insights for specific companies. Yes, a data set or two might be nice to be able to purchase from IDC, but it is not the be-all-end-all solution. A company would still need an information management solution in order to extract the full potential big data. 

Megan Feil, February 1, 2012