Big Data isn’t just near. It’s here.
And though IT professionals are no strangers to handling large amounts of information, the sheer breadth, depth, velocity and variability of the data that enterprises are producing and processing requires new ways of thinking about data management.
Unfortunately, many organizations are behind the curve when it comes to controlling the data flow.
Consider that in a recent survey by Oracle of 333 North American executives, 94 percent said that their organizations were collecting and managing more data today than they were two years ago — but most of those same executives gave themselves less-than-stellar grades on how prepared they were to deal with that data.
Even more unfortunate: More than 85 percent of Fortune 500 organizations will fail to effectively exploit Big Data for competitive advantage through 2015, Gartner Research predicts.
So how can your organization keep from falling behind and manage Big Data in a way that’s good for business? Don’t forget IT. Sure, all the data being produced is valuable business intelligence that various sectors of the enterprise will want a piece of — but organizations won’t be able to leverage the vast amounts of data if they can’t properly store it. That’s where IT comes in.
Three key IT steps should be taken to help get your organization on the right path in dealing with Big Data:
- Evaluate your data. How much of the organization’s data is or isn’t relevant to business goals? What data is created internally? Are there external data sources that could fulfill knowledge gaps and add business insight?
- Re-evaluate your infrastructure. Will your server and storage infrastructure and information management architecture be able to handle all the data your organization is collecting and using?
- Keep tabs on technology. What new tools and solutions are being touted to help companies deal with Big Data? Can colocation, managed hosting services, virtualization, infrastructure as a service (Iaas), or managed security help your organization?
Don’t let Big Data overcome your organization. Let IT take the reins in managing the information abundance so your enterprise can take full advantage of it.
What is your organization doing to deal with Big Data? Have you considered solutions such as colocation, managed hosting services, virtualization or infrastructure as a service (IaaS)?
Mindy Powers
Mindy Powers is vice president of business sales for the Western region and responsible for leading a sales organization that provides world-class communications solutions to global enterprises.
