Big Data and the Cloud

The amount of data in our world increases massively day-by-day. Big data is about capturing, storing and analyzing large pools of data from customers/consumers, suppliers, partners, operations, employees etc. According to a McKinsey  report, US companies from almost all industry sectors have, on average, hundreds of terabytes of data stored per company. The amount of data is growing as companies gather more and more information with each transaction and interaction with their customers.

There are some unique benefits of Big Data that companies just can’t ignore:

• Information is transparent and usable at a much higher frequency.
• Better management decisions, based on more objective data analysis;
• Forecasting industry trends or customer needs;
• Better customer segmentation that ultimately helps them tailor their products and services;
• Faster development of innovative products or services.

Today, the use of Big Data brings many competitive advantages. Meanwhile, as you know, cloud computing has also become a mainstream solution for storing, processing and sharing data, but these companies companies are not taking advantage of big data in the cloud.

So, why don’t companies using Big Data benefit also from using cloud technologies? Because moving large amounts of data in the cloud is not easy, especially for companies with terabytes of information. Many cloud providers saw new business opportunity in this and started to support big data solutions in the cloud.

A recent survey conducted by GigaSpaces reveals some interesting aspects regarding the Big Data – Cloud relationship. They wanted to find out more about what IT professionals are concerned with when it comes to Big Data systems, what are their future plans , and what tools they are using.

Here are the three major findings:

• 80 percent of organizations view their Big Data processing as mission critical.
• For companies handling Big Data, the need for real-time functionality is both significant and growing. The survey indicated that is increasing readiness to use streaming solutions to deal with the challenges of Big Data and speed up Big Data processing.
• 80 percent of companies have plans to move their Big Data to the Cloud, or are considering the option.

Cloud computing and Big Data are both very powerful trends. Together they can be even more powerful.  The cloud can make Big Data accessible while Big Data brings new business opportunities like better customer targeting and product innovation.

Photo source: https://www.sxc.hu/photo/1411719