What is Big Data and How to Conquer it

Big Data is the modern term for the information that businesses collect and use to make decisions. Whether it’s structured or unstructured, gigabytes or terabytes, fast or slow, you can turn big data into big ideas.

Just when you thought big data couldn’t get any bigger, it got bigger still. Regardless of its actual size, big data is creating value for organizations of all shapes and sizes. Here are four tips, summarizing their steps to success:

1. Think long term by thinking short term
If you worry about staying current with big data technology, you’re not alone. Everything is evolving so fast that it’s impossible to know which tools, platforms, and methodologies will be best. So stay loose and open to the possibilities of new products, as long as they deliver value.

2. Bring data down to eye level
Big data comes down to eye level when you visualize it. Exploring data visually lets the data’s story unfold vividly in a way the brain can grasp in a flash. Visualizing data, big or small, lets you answer your critical questions at the speed of thought.

3. Empower users for big insights
With big data, there’s simply no time now for anything but self-service data analysis. Instead of waiting months for one-off reports or data to be perfectly clean, technologies can provide immediate access to data. When valuable, the data can then be sent through the more rigorous processes for a data warehouse. Don’t restrict people’s flow of questions or insight. Empower them to answer questions themselves with access to the data.

4. Make bigger data out of small data
Look closely, and you see what big data is made of: many smaller datasets. Whether your data is in a spreadsheet, data warehouse, open source file systems, or in all of those, you need the flexibility to quickly connect and consolidate it. That lets you ask and answer questions as they come to mind — no matter how big, or small, your big data may be.

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