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Analytics is changing the way businesses operate and it has never been more important to have a firm understanding and analysis of data. We talked to Brian Gentile, Senior Vice President and General Manager at TIBCO Analytics, on the topic of why big data is continuing to hold big importance in 2015.
TechRadar Pro: So just how important is big data?
Brian Gentile: Regardless of size, an enterprise lives or dies based on its ability to make decisions in an accurate, timely and effective manner. But as the quantity and comprehensiveness of available data continues to expand, so too does the required scope of analytic decision making.
Analytics is changing the way businesses operate and it has never been more important to have a firm understanding and analysis of data. That is, for an organisation to succeed, a much larger percentage of its workforce must become capably analytic, at minimum during the point in time when a decision must be made or an action must be taken.
This is precisely why business intelligence (BI) has quickly evolved from a "nice to have" aspect to a fundamental business lifeline. In fact, we are today entering a new generation of embedded business intelligence which looks to make big data small, and is fundamentally different to the previous generations. So big data really holds big importance.
TRP: How are companies adopting big data today?
BG: There are three phases to the adoption of big data. Phase one is when organisations begin collecting these new, multi-structured data sources without even having a precise plan for their use (which is advisable today, given the low costs of doing so). By collecting this data, the organisation is simply recognising it will very likely find future value that is not easily known today.
Phase two is when organisations gain insight through internally-generated big data sources, such as clickstreams, customer service records, sensor-generated data, or social media sentiment information. These internal data sets are usually the first to yield new correlative value that can determine business critical decisions.
Lastly, phase three is when organisations include external big data sources and compares them with in-house data. The concept of putting these new, multi-structured big data types to work is just beginning and the quicker businesses adopt it, whether externally, internally or both, the more they will be able to reap the benefits, deliver true business value and stay ahead of the competition.
TRP: What can companies do today that they couldn't do previously when it comes to analysing their data?
BG: Businesses today have access to a host of new technologies that never previously existed. Traditionally BI has only been available in a standalone manner, for example. This doesn't allow for data to be analysed and presented in real-time to users inside the applications they actually use every day, and therefore becomes less valuable to them.
Modern day business reporting and analysis should be easily embedded into existing company applications or accessed via the cloud, all to ensure that those who need it, have access to the latest information and insight required to make accurate and more informed business decisions.
TRP: What benefits does this bring to those companies?
BG: The evidence is mounting that embedding analytics inside the applications business people use every day can lead to quantifiable benefits. A new generation of embedded BI platforms is making it easier and more cost-effective for organisations to gain insight from their data, and I hope that BI will finally become pervasive as an information service that informs day-to-day operations.
Using a business intelligence solution, organisations can address central issues such as identifying historical trends and using these for planning, gaining quick visibility into emerging issues as they arise for timely remediation/amplification, and exploring data interactively to identify patterns, investigate causes, and experiment with actions for improvement.
TRP: What trends are you seeing in the market and what does the future hold?
BG: There can be no escaping the fact that the BI market is evolving at a monumental pace. BI tools are now more affordable and accessible to the masses, thanks at least partially to a new generation of embedded analytics platforms that deploy a utility-based licensing model where the software is available on a per-core, per-hour or per-gigabyte basis in the cloud.
With this new business model, BI solutions can now be accessed for less than a pound an hour through the Amazon Web Service marketplace. This marks the start of an incredibly exciting period, one where companies and developers can finally experiment with BI and big data all at an affordable price, which will change the analytics consumption pattern at its core.
TRP: How can we successfully leverage trends, such as the Internet of Things, that allow for a new mass of information to be collected?
BG: I prefer to describe the Internet of Things as "sensors + software" because these terms better symbolise the grittier, more real-world value that can be delivered by measuring, monitoring and better managing vast amounts of sensor-generated data. This is growing increasingly important today with sensor-based technology becoming remarkably low cost (an RFID tag, for instance, can be purchased for well under £1 today).
Sensor-based data is becoming increasingly well suited for correlation analysis, rather than looking strictly for causation, something that increases the potential for finding value among this machine-generated data. It appears that a quiet revolution is already underway and sensors and software are already changing the world around us.
TRP: How are technologies like this shaping new jobs in ICT?
BG: As businesses gain access to wider volumes of data than ever before, new skills required to make sense of everything are surfacing. This trend has given rise to two new and critical organisational roles, the data scientist and the data explorer.
A data scientist requires professional data management, data mining and modelling expertise, while the data explorer brings business critical domain knowledge to the table – knowledge, without which, gaining new insight from big data simply isn't possible.
The good news is that modern analytic and reporting tools, designed for working with big data, are quickly becoming increasingly powerful and easy to use, even for the data explorer. The skillset combination of the data scientist and the data explorer creates a new level of unity between the business unit (and business analysts) and IT counterparts, and this is exciting.
TRP: How can we get young people interested in a career in IT to help close the current skills gap?
BG: There is a clear interest amongst students to embrace ICT today. There is also clearly an opportunity to promote a wider skillset, not only one that businesses require but one that students enjoy. The industry is crying out for talented graduates who have a deep understanding and interest in cloud analytics, design, big data and coding. Some of these young students might become interested in ICT because of their passion for gaming or personal devices, which are somewhat new technologies that increasingly influence the broader technology landscape.
We are all now an intricate part of a new ICT ecosystem, one built on big data, apps and industry innovation. This is something that the graduates of today know better than anybody else. Making sure young people have the right skills may well be only half the battle, but there is a greater opportunity than ever before to build upon student interest, encourage the training of a wider skillset and help to find the innovators of the future who will play a valuable role in bridging the ICT skills gap.
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