Rapid training of high-quality data to become the top priority

So far, it's time to stop hype about the lack of big data talent and start training and recruiting programs.

Experts are trained and not born. One question you need to answer is whether you need technical expertise or data expertise. Expertise allows SQL databases or Hadoop clusters to be used. Data expertise allows us to leverage data mining, text mining, forecasting and machine learning techniques. Either way, we should first of all assume that cultivating talent from existing staff is the most important and the best choice.

The 2012 Big Data and Analyst Survey found that most businesses plan to adopt a portfolio of retraining, hiring and outsourcing to fill the talent gap. However, approving salary increases, working with new recruits and interviewing candidates are a time-consuming process. More importantly, professionals probably have the ability to handle your business, your data sources and your current analysis, and most likely, analyze what you expect from big data and advanced analytics Get something

If you lack technical expertise, trust your existing database administrator, database developer, and data warehouse technician who can learn new tricks. For example, moving from a traditional database to a massively parallel processing (MPP) database platform is not a huge leap for database managers (DBAs), and good people will quickly adapt to this challenge.

Suppliers have always had the option of offering low-cost training and certification. For example, HP just announced course modules and certification exams around its MPP-based HP Vertica Analytics Platform. Its introductory course will be taught in HP ExpertOne classrooms around the world for a period of more than three days. Another option is virtual online training, which will be completed in four days. Chris Selland, HP's vice president of marketing, said: "It's a training on technical products on how to set up software and make the most out of it. Its broad audience is from database administrators (DBAs) to data scientists."

Big data is primarily based on the variety of its data and its huge capacity, which runs primarily on new platforms such as Apache Hadoop and NoSQL databases. John Schroeder, chief executive of Hadoop's software, support and training services provider MapR, said that in just five months, many companies have no experience in bringing Hadoop clusters to production. He said: "Now we will face a war of talent because there are more projects on hand than our staff, but we will also see a dramatic increase in the number of Hadoop trainings compared to 2010 and 2011. "

MAPR and its competitors Cloudera and Hortonworks provide a large number of training courses. At MAPR, they usually provide MAPR learning videos for two to three days. Its online and classroom course topics include the basics of cluster management, Hive and Pig hands-on training, MapReduce training, and HBase programming. Cloudera University offers online and classroom courses worldwide, while Hortonworks University offers classrooms in major cities, recruiting six or more participants at the company's premises.

The precondition for these training programs is that trainers are capable system administrators and developers who can quickly learn new technologies that are completely different from SQL and relational databases. Among the more advanced data-oriented courses such as "Getting Started in Data Science - Building a Recommendation System" (by Cloudera University), its target audience is "software engineers with a basic level of knowledge and skills in Hadoop, data Analysts and statisticians.

If your data management team is not involved in topics such as advanced data mining, text mining and predictive analytics, consider one of their top master's degree programs. The shortest training course can be completed in 10 months, but it is full-time and may not be suitable for existing employees unless they are allowed to take a break. There are also part-time and online school courses, the shortest about two years of training time.

Developing a master's degree is primarily a resource for those who want to attend training. If you are in a hurry to fill a talent gap, you can look at the courses as a resource for recruiting. The advantage of attending a master's program is that most students will have three or more years of business experience. Most schools will be happy to welcome new employers to participate in their recruiting programs, especially those large companies with steady demand for new employees.

Some schools even collaborate with sponsoring companies and professors and graduate teams work together to address real-world business challenges. This is the case with North Carolina State University's Institute of Advanced Analytical Research and the MIT Digital Research Center. So you can also collaborate with research centers or research institutes offering degree programs that offer analytics or big data.

The bottom line is that we have many other options besides blaming or hiring high-priced headhunters. If you are looking for high-end talent, this task is undoubtedly very difficult. But before you issue a hysteria like "I can not find a talent," determine the size of your needs and training, and then establish contact with a local university, perhaps your problem is solved.