Using analytics to properly interpret the ocean of information that exists within organizations is the key to avoid drowning in the data tsunami.

“That’s the message SAS Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Keith Collins delivered in a recent address to a group of computer science students at North Carolina State University.

Keith’s talk, titled “How do you respond to a data tsunami?,” kicked off the 2010 Fidelity Investments “Leadership in Technology” Executive Speaker Series sponsored by the university’s Department of Computer Science.

“We talk tons about how you get information in,” Keith said. “But we’ve done very little to describe and understand processes of getting information out.”

Applying analytics in the business world
With a flood of data at their disposal, business leaders can often feel overwhelmed at the volume of information that is available to them.

Keith encouraged students to approach their studies with a view toward using technology to solve business problems. Doing so will help to bridge the gap that often exists between business and technology leaders, Keith said.

As an IT industry we’re not paying attention to what we already know about applying analytics to information flow,” Keith said.

To highlight the value of using analytics to solve business problems, Keith shared some examples of ways that SAS has worked with customers to help them become more efficient and profitable.

Data tsunami is nothing new
The SAS head of R&D concluded his talk by saying that the data tsunami is nothing new.

In the 1960s, data was collected on paper tape, punch cards and magnetic strips. Today, it’s on disc drives, Web streams and blogs, he said.

“It’s as messy as it ever has been, but the problem is the same,” explained Keith. “The order of magnitude of what we can accomplish is fantastic.”