Whether your goal is to be able to access the massive volumes of data in your organization or would simply like to accommodate real-time insights for immediate decision support, big data can help transform your business. As we’ll soon refer to big data as just “data,” this means a big data initiative is in the not so distant future for companies of all sizes. We’ve highlighted four elements below that will help determine the best course of action for your company’s big data initiative:
- Business Assessment—To get started, you’ll need to assess your current level of readiness and identify potential business scenarios and use cases. It may prove beneficial to use the services of outside big data consultants, such as SAP or Oracle, to help you gain a better understanding of how your company can use big data for optimal performance. This also needs to involve identifying gaps between current and future requirements, defining scope and budget, and creating a high-level blueprint and delivery roadmap.
- Technology Platform Options – Creating the optimal infrastructure is crucial for big data support, whether with an on-premise application, in the cloud, or a hybrid approach. SAP’s Hadoop and HANA platform uses data management best practices to integrate structured, semi-structured and unstructured data. Oracle’s Hadoop and NoSQL platform enable your system to solve development as well as production workloads and grow as data needs grow. You can maintain your environment or both vendors offer to manage the entire process.
- Governance Issues—Even though the data governance process for big data is relatively new, it will be critical to the success of your initiative. We found TechTarget’s article, “Mission impossible? Data governance process takes on big data” to be one of the most insightful on the topic, and states that proactive data quality checks can save a lot of time and grief down the road.
- Leveraging Data Scientists—Data scientists can help you achieve faster, more tangible results from big data. How does a data scientist differ from a business intelligence professional? Data scientists use advanced analytical tools and algorithms to create predictive insights that are a direct result of the data. Whether you choose to find data scientists in-house or use a recruiting firm to help select the best candidates to interview, you will need to have your team in place before the implementation begins.
For more information or questions around big data or data scientists, contact us today.