Technology Challenges

Technology challenges include our workforce, infrastructure and tools. Each are equally important.

Workforce

We need to make an effort to train the workforce that’s already in place and hire top talent to fill the gaps. It’s a booming market for Big Data professionals. According to Forbes, IBM advertised 2,307 new positions in Big Data in the last 12 months. Those professionals with VMWare expertise, application development, open source technology experience, data warehousing and solid programming skills will be the ones to hire.

Infrastructure

Simplify, simplify, simplify! Agile IT is the business and simplification is essential. From an architectural point of view, the fewer systems you have, the more agile you will be.

 Using this approach, we need to be smart and build an ecosystem for the future.

• Combine legacy systems with modern systems to reduce cost. Leverage the existing architecture and use an evolutionary approach to build the smart ecosystem of the future. Don’t start from scratch; it will cost valuable time and resources.
  

• Prepare the infrastructure for business-critical production applications.
  
  • The customer experience depends on high availability.
  • Make sure to plan for hardware, network and data management applications.
  • Data storage must have the capacity to hold and update data at a low cost.
  • The network must be able to efficiently transfer data to/from frameworks and architectures, while providing for future growth.
  • Data management applications must be flexible for processing, organizing and utilizing massive amounts of data in real time.

• Analyze data for predictive analytics and targeted marketing campaigns.

Tools

To be successful managing Big Data, it’s important to invest in proven BI tools and apps. The right tools provide the ability to leverage the vast amounts of data that’s collected as well as gain invaluable insight. The best tools are the ones that are easy-to-use and provide interactive interfaces that help us gain control and make informed decisions with Big Data.

Regulatory Challenges

We need to be aware of existing and new regulations that restrict the use, storage and collection of certain types of data. Obtaining and analyzing data to improve business practices will help to increase revenue and decrease cost, but with new laws, regulations and governance over data here in the U.S. and in other countries, it’s important to make sure the methods in which data is obtained and used to generate new streams of revenue are in line with rules and regulations.

The Keys to Success

Despite all the challenges, there are many opportunities to monetize on Big Data and gain an advantage over the competition.  These include opportunities to:

Increase revenue by tailoring advertising, products and services, and by leveraging predictive analytics to gain real-time insights into customer behavior.

Decrease costs through fraud prevention and network optimization.

Improve the Customer Experience with instant customer feedback, targeted and predictive marketing, and tailored products and services.

Across the three silos, there must be collaboration to overcome these challenges. For example, the business and technology silos need to work together to find synergies and automate IT and business processes for the most efficient and effective operation across the enterprise. Work together as a team and be smart.

Big Data is skyrocketing. With an evolutionary, innovative approach, businesses can use this opportunity to take the lead over the competition.