Big Data Gets Bigger in 2015

We are firmly entrenched in the age of technology where the key to business success lies in their ability to: adapt, evolve, and keep up with the times. In 2015, that means big data, which is only projected to get bigger in the coming year.

Big data is somewhat of a misnomer, as, at its heart, it’s a vast pool of data collected in small increments. Big data is really a big collection of little data, but that collection is the key to analytics and business development in 2015. Big data in and of itself had a breakout year in 2014, but its enterprise adoption remained a work in progress. Here’s why 2015 is primed to be the year that enterprises make the most of big data.

Data Is More Accessible Than Ever

Before 2015, big data was considered something primarily to be dealt with by certain statisticians and analytics. But the old ways are changing in a flurry. Big data problems are no longer all being lumped into one category, to be dealt with by the specialists. The right tools are emerging for each and every data obstacle, and the people with their hands on those tools are continuing to understand how to use them properly. Says Bloomberg’s Matt Hunt, “High core counts, SSDs, and large RAM footprints are common today – but many of the commodity platforms have yet to take full advantage of them, and challenges remain.” Those challenges are now being confronted.

Our Understanding of Big Data is Improving

Because big data hasn’t been incredibly accessible, it has become slightly misunderstood. Or, in Hunt’s words, “At Bloomberg . . . we don’t have a big data problem. What we have is a “medium data” problem — and so does everyone else.” Companies and systems have historically done a poor job of distinguishing between medium data and big data. In essence, what this creates is a sea with too many fish to find the right one. As enterprises come to understand what small, medium, and big data actually are, their scope narrows, and the data becomes more useful.

As the business intelligence gleaned from big data becomes increasingly accessible for non-IT staff and users on mobile devices, it has become a bigger priority for executive leadership. As big data analytics vendor InetSoft reports, “With the ability to manipulate the big data on the fly with formulas and transformations, you can create KPIs that could be visualized in web-based dashboards that individuals of all technical skill levels can use from any device, whether desktops, laptops, mobile phones or tablets.”

The Ice is Broken

The technology world behaves like the classic penguin example, where the birds jostle until one falls in the water. The hoard of penguins watches to see if a predator eats the individual, and, if not, they all join him in the water that has been proven safe. In technology, once the ice is broken, everyone clamors to get in. 2014 was the year that big data’s proverbial ice was broken; enterprises now see the potential of maximizing big data, and they will try to utilize it as quickly as possible.

Big data is getting bigger, and 2015 serves to be a critical year for its growth. But it’s not that big data itself is growing; it’s that our understanding of how to use it, our resources for using it, and our desire of why to use it is rapidly expanding. And as that happens, big data will only get bigger.