People are such an important aspect of data analytics. I was reminded of this at the recent Strata+Hadoop World event, where I saw first hand that the UK is indeed facing the same skills gaps as elsewhere in the world. Perhaps that didn’t surprise me, but I also noticed the
According to recent studies on big data readiness, the majority of companies (more than 60 percent in the latest study of Crisp Research) are not prepared for the challenges of digital transformation. In fact, 58 percent of decision makers surveyed say they have no strategy in place. The quest for
You might have lots of data on lots of customers, but imagine if you could suddenly add in a huge dollop of new, highly informative data that you weren’t able to access before. You could then use analytics to extract some really important insights about these customers, allowing you to
After reading Gartner's 2015 Hadoop adoption study results by Analysts Nick Heudecker and Merv Adrian, the first thing that comes to my mind is Goethe's phrase from Egmont, "Himmelhoch jauchzend, zu Tode betrübt." Translated: heavenly joy, deadly sorrow. What happened to yesterday's hype around the cute yellow elephant - which
A proof of concept (POC) is smartest way for customers to evaluate if a product meets the required objectives, and the best way for vendors to demonstrate why they feel they are best placed to resolve the current outstanding problems. However, not all POCs are successful. Let’s explore why. What is
How can you use an innovation lab to be as agile and innovative as a startup? Are there different types of innovation labs and if so what is the difference? I answered these two questions in previous posts, and now I will answer a third pressing question: how can you build the business
We’ve all been there. You’ve knuckled down, cleaned out the garage, the attic, and that cupboard under the stairs, thrown away a ton of stuff, only to need it again the very next week. Until recently, that’s exactly what many businesses did with their data. The data explosion has radically
Was it really just three years ago that an IT leader needed nerves of steel to commit to a business-critical application that used Hadoop? As Epsilon's VP of Products Bob Zurek can tell you: It was. While the open source big data framework was considered a huge gamble for digital marketing agency Epsilon
We’ve all heard the old saw, “If you torture data long enough, eventually it will confess to something.” But when it comes to spurring real change, how about ditching the dungeon-master act and thinking like a venture capitalist instead? Wouldn’t that pay bigger dividends? That was the tip from Ravi
Hoarding has a bad name. Popular TV programmes such as The Hoarder Next Door, Obsessive Compulsive Hoarder in the UK and Hoarding: Buried Alive in the US show hoarding in a very bad light. After all, why can’t they just throw away that 10-year-old newspaper? What drives the hoarders’ motivation to keep everything
