Entrepreneurs: Big Opportunity in Big Data
by Miki Saxon
I no longer live in the Bay Area, but as a center of entrepreneurship I am still very connected. Big data presents enormous opportunities for entrepreneurs, so I asked Walter Paliska, a senior marketing manager at EMANIO, Inc., to share intel what is means to the enterprise startup community.
By Walter Paliska:
Between November 13th and 14th I had the opportunity to attend the Big Data Business Forum in San Francisco, CA. Over the course of two days several companies, both large and small, were able to display their wares and discuss how “big data” is impacting us. Some of the key takeaways from the conference, especially for CEOs and executives in start up organizations, are directly related to how big data is driving innovation and on the opportunities available for startups. The rapid growth of data is driving a core set of new problems that businesses are trying to both understand and cope with:
- The technology part is growing, but the business value is not keeping up. One of the interesting takeaways from conversations with a number of attendants was this: while the IT side of the house understands the problem that the rising amount of data is causing, the business side is having a hard time grasping the value that analyzing all this data will provide. Some small software startups are beginning to try and address this challenge by deploying tools that are easier to use and that bring data analysis “closer” to the business user – but clearly there is still a large gap between IT and the business side.
- Big data is hard – very hard – and expensive. Once again a key takeaway from the conference was that solving big data problems is both technically and fiscally challenging. While Fortune 500 companies are clearly looking for ways to exploit their copious amounts of data, actually doing so still requires an exceedingly high level of expertise and tools that are still costly and difficult to use.
- The “platform wars” make things harder. Should a business standardize on Hadoop? HPCC? SAP Hana? How do available solutions work with any of these platforms? What are the differences and business implications of each? Depending on how one answers these questions and on the selections one makes, the available software tools and solutions vary. The world of big data is not nearly as clearly defined and understood as server operating systems, enterprise ERP systems etc., and that means opportunity for new solutions that help bridge the gaps.
These are just some of the challenges that businesses have today with big data. The implication for startups is clear, helping business users understand the value of their data and providing tools that make the process of using and benefiting from big data easier, less expensive and more uniform – regardless of platform – can begin to bridge the chasm between IT and the business side to finally realize the benefit of “big data” for everyone.
Enterprise startups are hot and ideas relating to big data will fuel many of them.
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Flickr image credit: Kevin Krejci
