Cloud Meets Big Data

Manoj Chugh The author is president, EMC India &
SAARC

The next big thing in information technology is and in the recent past has been cloud computing, for its potential to transform the way users store, secure and manage their information assets. The cloud dividend in terms of cost-savings, better IT and ultimate business agility is now exceedingly difficult to deny. Exceptions do exist but they are getting harder to find these days. Now the discussion has started to shift to a compelling case for cloud thinkingBig Data.
In a nutshell, the premise behind big data is simple. Many of the newer IT based value propositions are built around, gathering and leveraging vast amounts of information. More data, more value. Its not a problem, its an opportunity!

As per a recent report by McKinsey and Company, Big Data refers to datasets whose size is beyond ability of typical database software to capture, store, manage, and analyze. The definition is intentionally subjective and incorporates a moving definition of how big a dataset needs to be considered Big Data. Currently it can range from a few dozen terabytes to multiple petabytes.

Digital data is now everywhere, in every sector, in every economy, and in every organization. The ability to store, aggregate and combine data, and then use the results to perform deep analyses has become even more accessible.

Last year, an IDC study by EMC estimated that the amount of digital data created annually will grow 44 fold over the next 10 years. It said that the amount of digital information created in 2010 globally would be to the tune of 1.2 zettabytes (1 zettabyte equals 1 trillion gigabytes).
If you are in any business of retail, you desperately want to understand the behavior and perceptions of your target marketat least certainly better than the folks you are competing with!

You want to mash buying behavior with survey data and demographics with social feeds, etc. Part of retail and consumer are already embracing cloud + big data with many more coming on board.

In another example, lets look at government agencies, and regardless of their mission, people will find a critical function that involves ingesting massive amounts of information, storing it, and then analyzing it all. Many government functions already have a recognizable cloud + big data function with more coming along all the time.

Health care delivery needs to move towards harnessing enormous amounts of patient records, and providing evidence driven recommendations that not only change recommended protocols, but shape overall health care policy. Before long, health care will undoubtedly be a cloud + big data industry.

Consider what happens when National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid) becomes operational in India. It will integrate the existing 21 databases with central and state goverrnment agencies and other organizations in the public and private sector such as banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges, airlines, railways, telecom service providers, chemical vendors, etc.

Cloud computing makes big data possible by providing an elastic pool of resources to handle the massive data scale. Through cloud computing, IT resources are more efficient and IT teams are more productivefreeing up resources to invest in big data.

In todays world, technology is a reality. The time now is about the cloud meeting big data. With the data warehousing world in such a transformational phase and as big data transforms business through strategic insight, CIOs will rule this rich and intelligent information era.