I attended a recent gathering on the topic of “Big Data” sponsored by MinneAnalytics at Medtronic here in Minneapolis. With so much talk about the cloud, mobile, bandwidth, etc. it may be easy to forget that at the core of all of it is data!* That data continues to grow, showing no signs of slowing (obviously) and we are hanging onto all of it.
A major contributor to this data is the mobile device. In fact, Rob Pegler of EMC/Isilon pulled his phone out many times during his presentation noting, “It’s all files.” I’ve pulled some highlights from his talk defining and managing “Big Data” in the video below.
The bottom line of this talk as well as others from the event is simple: data is getting bigger, and while storing it or moving it presents a challenge, learning from it is paramount. The real challenge is getting through all of it.
*Editorial note: I’ve chosen to use the singular form of data here. While analysts, researches, and data enthusiasts may find this distasteful and contrary to the Latin root of the word, my reasoning is quite scientific: It sounds funny. Talk among yourselves.