Name: Too Big to Ignore
Rating: 4.3 (11 reviews)
Author: Phil Simon

What’s in it for me? Learn what the big deal with Big Data is, and how you can wield its power for your business.

What do you do when you hear people talking about Big Data? Sort of nod your head, but hope you don’t have to say anything? Wonder if you should find out what it actually means? Or brush it off as “just another buzzword”?

Well, we should all be taking Big Data seriously. As Phil Simon argues in Too Big To Ignore, not only is Big Data too big, it’s too important to overlook or shrug off.

These blinks show why Big Data is suddenly relevant, and how you can use it to your advantage. That’s why this pack is a must-read. If you want to improve your business or organization, you need to make Big Data work for you.

After reading these blinks, you’ll know

how you can steer your business toward Big Data;
how to visualize Big Data; and
how companies like Netflix used Big Data to fuel enormous growth.

Our changing consumption patterns and plummeting technology costs have led to the growth of “Big Data.”

Everyone’s talking about Big Data these days, and many companies hire data scientists. But what exactly is Big Data? And why is it spreading now?

“Big Data” refers to huge data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with easily. They can’t be processed using basic applications like Microsoft Excel or Access.

The growth of Big Data has been driven by our changing consumption patterns. Smart phones, cloud computing and broadband connections ensure that we’re constantly consuming and generating data.

This new, fast and simple access to data ensures that we’re always “on.” Think about it – what’s the first thing you do when your plane lands? Turn on your phone, right?

After that, you probably check your email, Facebook or Twitter. When you do that, you aren’t just accessing data – you’re creating it. This kind of consumer behavior created Big Data.

Our consumption patterns have changed because of plummeting technology costs. Technology – especially storage and bandwidth – has become extremely cheap.

This change really can’t be understated. Modern, inexpensive technology enables and even encourages us to contribute to Big Data. How many TV series would you stream if each episode cost $10 of bandwidth, on top of rental or purchasing fees?

In 1990, data storage cost $10,000 per GB. By 2010, that figure had fallen to ten cents.

Affordable technology and Big Data allow for 48 hours of video to be uploaded to YouTube every minute. It allows over 200 billion videos to be viewed each month. Without Big Data, such things wouldn’t be possible. So what are we supposed to do with it?

Use new, innovative platforms to manage your Big Data work – or outsource it.

Here’s some news that’s both good and bad: with Big Data, you’ll never use Excel or Access again. You’ll have to use new platforms if you want to get the most out of Big Data, and the platforms have to be versatile.

Hadoop, for example, is a large collection of projects that handle data. It doesn’t have one standard configuration. Instead, it’s made up of several subprojects that are each quite complex.

Big Data amplifies existing security and ethical issues.

Big Data is not without its problems. If you think that storing a tremendous amount of information about people sounds like it has some drawbacks, you’re not wrong.

Big Data raises privacy issues to new heights. If the wrong people get hold of certain kinds of Big Data, it could be disastrous.

Key ideas in Too Big to Ignore

About the Author

Phil Simon is a technology consultant, and the author of The Age of the Platform. His work has been featured on NBC, CNBC, ABC, in BusinessWeek and The Huffington Post.

© [Phil Simon: Too Big to Ignore] copyright [2013], John Wiley & Sons [Inc. or Ltd. as applicable] Used by permission of John Wiley & Sons [Inc. or Ltd. as applicable] and shall not be made available to any unauthorized third parties.