Big data in the eyes of different people

Daniel Bolton is a system analyst for the Intertape Polymer group, which specializes in product production in the packaging industry. "We're a mid-sized company and I don't have any particular idea what big data is, but I think it's a marketing strategy," he said. ”

Bolton is not the only one who thinks so. Although big data is still the hottest topic, how to define it, and whether or not the organization has large data, is a difficult question for companies to answer.

For example, a small group of representatives from the education sector has a simpler definition of large data: "Information overload." A manager of a large integrated oil company says its company has terabytes of data, but the data is well managed, and he does not think the size of the data is in the category of big data. A representative from an asset management company said Big data was just a "hype" generated by Internet and social data.

Did you have any big data today?

The representatives of the asset management company believe that the two blocks of social and network data drive big data discussions, but the two will not be introduced into his company's analytical environment.

"These are not our real concerns," he said. I do not know what it has to do with my business, what is the use. ”

Allianz, an American insurer, has about 5 TB of data, but Ron Naumann, vice president of corporate data management, does not consider this a big data environment.

He said: "Since the performance is no problem, the enterprise does not regard it as a problem." "Of course it's one thing to collect data, and more difficult to focus on how to judge the value of data," he said. Do we really need these 5 TB data? How do you evaluate the value of these additional data from a business perspective?

Betting Big Data

The oil company's manager said: "Every five seconds, the sensor will send out the operating conditions of the pump, these new data sources have caused too much interference, the key is to select important parts-is information, not just data." ”

He said the data in the sensor could predict pump failure or provide detailed information on drilling conditions, thereby saving the company tens of billions of of dollars. A drill with a sensor can send back data about what kind of environment the drill enters. We can get this data and compare it to a similar drilling, and then analyze what kind of rock strata it is and what might be happening.

Because the amount of data is too large, processing sensor data means introducing new technologies into the ecosystem. The oil company is working on a large data strategy and plans to evaluate Hadoop and other MapReduce technologies, the manager said.

Ingram Barge, a company that makes water bulk shipments, sees hopes for a big data future. It is now the beginning of a structured business intelligence project. "We are working to consider how to provide data to the user base in a more targeted strategy," said Maria Conatser, the managing director of analyst and project management. ”

The company is now evaluating supplier selection, but while the company is still rolling out the project, she is looking ahead to the unknown possibilities that big data can offer, especially for what a shipping company can offer.