Just mention the words “Big Data” to any technology entrepreneur or investor and observe how his/her face lights up with excitement. Given the perceived opportunity in Big Data, tech entrepreneurs and investors want to capitalize on it by starting /investing in a Big Data Management, Mining and Analytics business. Is this perceived opportunity in Big Data for real or is it a bubble that will burst soon?

I think the perceived opportunity in Big Data is real and is here to stay as Big Data Mining/Analytics will fundamentally change the way business is done not only online but also offline. Here’s why: Big Data is a key enabler for Social Business and without Big Data Mining/Analytics, a large or medium sized company can neither make sense of all the user generated content online nor can collaborate with  customers, suppliers and partners effectively on Social Media channels. And both of these activities, namely... Read the article

The New York Times recently had an extensive article on The Age of Big Data by Steve Lohr. Data is now growing at 50 percent a year, or more than doubling every two years according to IDC. This has created a big demand in the job market. According to McKinsey the, “United States needs 140,000 to 190,000 more workers with “deep analytical” expertise and 1.5 million more data-literate managers, whether retrained or hired.”

The World Economic Forum at Davos, issued a report, “Big Data, Big Impact,” that “declared data a new class of economic asset, like currency or gold.” The report summary notes that a... Read the article

Big Data Analytics is a hot topic of discussion these days. But many feel that it is more of a “hype” and less of substance. In my opinion, Big Data Analytics is the real deal and if used correctly, can deliver great business results at a fraction of cost compared to other alternatives.

Here’s a simple yet very effective example of using analytics for understanding consumer attitudes towards airlines in real time. In this study, Jeffrey Breen has used the R programming language to analyze consumer sentiments about major U.S. airlines expressed on Twitter. For more on the methodology and results, see... Read the article

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Big Data Analytics is making big headlines these days. Just check out a few from recent past:

• Big Data — Big Money Says It Is A Paradigm Buster - Forbes.com
• For Start-Ups That Aim at Giants, Sorting the Data Cloud Is the Next Big Thing - The New York Times
• Accel Makes Big Commitment To Big Data With $100M Fund - The Wall Street Journal
• Five startup predictions for 2012 - c|net
• Big Data: Investments Flow into the Next Big Thing - a great post by Dick Weisinger

So what is Big Data and why it is in the news so much these days?... Read the article

I recently read about the Five Top Challenges of Integrating Social Media Data with Business Applications by Elias Terman on the CTOEdge. The five were: social data streams overwhelm enterprise applications; unstructured social media data is difficult to manage; new access methods and standards; data quality and quantity; the elephant in the room: Big Data. Now it seems to me that these issues are all, or at least mostly, about how to connect old school enterprise applications of record that deal with transactions and the new school systems of engagement that deal with interactions.... Read the article