Over the past 15 years we’ve seen an explosion in the amount of data being gathered. From Banks, Social Media, Retailers etc., suddenly, we have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and information. The more data we have, the more we know about the past, and the more we can focus on changing the future.

We depend on the data to determine where we are going. If not already, not far from now the whole economy will depend on Big Data, and how their owners interpret and apply them to their businesses. Business Intelligence needs new approaches to the volumes to make sense, and to extract value from it. Our whole mind-set and framework needs to adapt to the changes.

Are you ready for that next frontier in using the data? Have you started planning/changing your infrastructure and solutions to cater for all of these changes? As our data grow, so should our ability to use it, with special attention to storing and recovery. This should be as good as gold, and be treated the same way.

Too often do I speak to clients who have all the data, but have not applied any intelligence to it? Will you base critical business decisions on these analytics?

Not only are we storing everything we can get our hands on, but also deriving value from hidden facts within, to make assumptions or do clever calculations. To understand your business, level yourself with the competition, you have no choice but to adopt the model.

Irrespective of your product/platform of choice, the market for storing and manipulating the data has also seen some competition. Who will be next and what more will they offer?

What are your views on the future of Big Data?