Big data of the future is providing context at scale

Businesses need data to survive. But not data in its raw form – they need the contextual, valuable information which data feeds. It’s this information that is forming the foundation on which differentiated customer experiences, brand reputation and new business models are being built.

Up until recently, we have been preoccupied with the sheer size of the data at our fingertips. 2.5 quintillion bytes of it produced every day to be exact. Now our challenge is to gather data from a vastly increased number of sources and make it valuable. Knitting the complexity of data components together is critical if we are to transform data into “information”. It’s a complex task and one that needs more intelligent storage and the ability to scale that storage to make it possible. Already we are seeing how this valuable information is changing our lives, for example:

Smart vehicles
Assisted living/homes using information to better predict a medical emergency
Logistics companies using data to change how they predict delivery times for packages; increasing the number of packages they can deliver and the accuracy of delivery

What they have in common is providing business users with information at the point of demand. Richard will look at the technology solutions which are fundamental and critical to make big data innovation possible.