With big data still one of the “Buzz Words” of the moment more and more emphasis is being put on how we store all the data we are accumulating, with very little on how we use it.
A recent article on Forbes.com stated that “Industry analysts have predicted that there will be somewhere between 26 and 30 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices by the year 2020.” This in turn leads to an increase in the data that can be captured.
However, why are people capturing this data? Is it because we think we should? Yes we should be collecting it but we should also be analysing it and using the findings to our advantage.
Squirro’s take on this is that the problem arises from ignoring context and ignoring the 80% of data that is unstructured. A great deal of that captured data is thrown away, unused because people do not have the analytical capability.
The problem, then, is that we’re overwhelmed by data but the big data revolution remains distinctly underwhelming when it comes to the issue of making us smarter, helping us make better decisions and improving our lives. In fact, if the theory of ‘agony of choice’ is true then more data without more meaning is actually harmful. This emphasises the importance of creating solutions that interpret data, that help data make sense and help people make better decisions based on that data – Just like Squirro can!
It’s time to put the first law of big data into practice!
“The degree to which we take the exact depth of big data analytics is directly determined by the corresponding level of insight it produces and where we can still say that we gain ‘productive incremental value’ from doing so.”
