Make the Big Data Jump, But Know Your Business Needs First

When considering the big data initiatives in organizations today, I am reminded of a quote from the King of Hearts during Alice’s trial in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:

“This is very important…Unimportant, of course, I meant – important, unimportant, unimportant, important.”

Unlike the King, who was unsure of the importance of Alice’s crime and unable to make a well thought out decision, organizations need to remember that – as with any other technology – to be successful with big data you need to understand what business issues you are trying to solve. Not all data is important; understanding the context of data is key to being able to discern between what information is beneficial and what is not. But, before you can even tackle the actual data, you need to take a step back and ask yourself these questions:

• Do you understand your business issues?
• Have you outlined a precise role for big data in moving your business forward?
• If so, how can you be successful with your big data initiative?

Once you have a concrete understanding of your business challenges and how big data can help solve them, you can then begin to implement initiatives. This is where things can get tricky. If you haven’t developed solid data practices with “small data,” you may find big data frustrating. It’s important to remember that big data does not cleanse your data, nor is it an island — big data must integrate with the rest of your infrastructure. This fact is often overlooked as organizations jump feet first into big data.

Despite this, we shouldn’t be afraid to make the jump. Data integration technology is nothing new. In the past, we used application integration tools, data warehouses and manually created scripts to allow applications in our organization to interact with other applications. The challenge we face now is integrating these systems with our big data.

That’s where DataDirect comes in. Our Data Integration Suite provides a fast, easy way for enterprise systems to consume a variety of data sources, as well as visually map data. As the tools and techniques used for big data mature, we’re continually finding new ways to make advances in the field. To make sure you’re up to date on the latest from DataDirect, be sure to follow us @DataDirect_News!