7 Big Data Trends for 2014

As the year 2013 is almost over, it is good to have a look back at the trends that I discussed for 2013 and look forward to the Big Data trends of 2014. It can be said that 2013 was really the year that Big Data seriously took off and went from being adopted by an exclusive group of companies to mainstream awareness. This could be seen from the massive investments made in Big Data startups from around the world, to the growing list of Big Data best practices that appeared. But what happened to the trends that I foresaw in 2013 and what will be the most important Big Data trends for 2014?

Looking back at the 2013 Big Data trends

Last year I noted that on on-the-go Big Data, meaning being able to view Big Data visualizations on mobile devices, will become important and in 2013 we saw the rise of a bunch of new mobile devices including smart watches and Google Glass. There are some Big Data startups, such as Roambi, who have very clear understanding of on-the-go Big Data and are capable of bringing real-time interactive visualizations to mobile devices. On-the-go Big Data really took off in 2013 and is here to stay.

The second trend was that Big Data does not require big bucks because of the plethora of Big Dataopen source tools that are available in the market as well as the decreasing costs of storage. The price of storage does indeed continue to decrease in costs, but the amount of data also grows exponentially. Will we be able to keep up with this or will the amount of data outgrow the available storage? The amount of open source tools is growing rapidly, but there is also a rise in licensed Big Data solutions, because open source tools do require experience Big Data personnel and many organisations do not yet have these staff available. So, to start with Big Data it does not have to cost the world, but to develop and implement a complete Big Data solution can be expensive, although the results can also be significant.

The third trend was big real-time data and 2013 did indeed show an important growth in real-time analytics. More and more tools become available that create a layer on top of Hadoop to be able to deal with real-time data and Hadoop 2.0′s YARN framework enables real-time data analysis. In the coming years this will become more important as many industries see the advantages of real-time analytics.

Big consumer data, or the quantified-self movement, was the fourth trend and this really took off in 2013. Wearable technologies that can measure every day life have started to appear massively and more and more consumers are measuring at least something of their behaviour, be it their sleeping patterns or the running results. Recent research from Pew Research Centre revealed that 69% of U.S. adults keep track of at least one health indicator such as weight, diet, exercise routine or symptom.

The final trend was Big Data related to privacy. Last year I wrote that “it feels like we have fallen in love with Big Data and that we are blind for the pitfalls in Big Data. We do not want to see the backside of Big Data and the effect it will have on our privacy.” Of course, in 2013 we saw the PRISM leak by Edward Snowden, which showed that privacy in the Big Data world is indeed an endangered species and there is probably a lot more to be revealed in the coming months. Privacy is indeed affected by Big Data and as consumers, and companies, we will have to get used to this new reality.

The Seven Big Data Trends for 2014

So, what can we expect for the coming year? First of all, as IDC already predicted, the Big Data market will grow to $ 16.1 billion in 2014 and they also forecast that the Big Data technology and services market will continue to grow at a 27% CAGR to $ 32.4 billion through 2017. So, although the five trends discussed last year will continue to affect your Big Data strategy, for 2014 I foresee different areas within Big Data that will take off. Let’s have  a look at the seven Big Data trends for 2014.

The rise of the Industrial Internet

The first trend I foresee is the rise of the Industrial Internet that will affect the industrial sector dramatically. The next year, machine-to-machine data will grow significantly and continue to do so in the years after. By 2020, 40% of all data will come from sensor data and it will unlock a $ 1 trillion global market in 2020 (currently it is a $ 121 billion global market). In addition, GE reports that the Industrial Internet could add $10 to $15 trillion to global GDP in the coming years.

These sensors will completely change the way companies, factories and supply chains will be operated and managed. Technology is transforming the industrial sector, creating machines that can see, feel, sense and react, so they can be operated far more efficiently. Already there are some great examples of how this will affect companies, ranging from airline companies that can reduce turn-around time with monitoring the plane during the flight, to analyzing many different variables to pick the best places to locate wind turbines around the world to be able to harvest the most energy at the lowest costs. As sensors and storage are becoming cheaper every day, algorithms are becoming better and organisations more and more see the need for smart factories, the Industrial Internet will really take off in 2014.

It is going to be cloudy: Big-Data-as-a-Service solutions

We already see more and more Big Data startups that are creating a Big-Data-as-a-Service solution to help organisations apply Big Data without the heavy costs involved. Especially useful for Small or Medium sized enterprises who do want to develop a data-driven information-centric organisation, but who do not have the capacity to develop and maintain a full-fledge Big Data solution on premises. Big-data-as-a-Service is a combination of Analytics-as-a-service, Infrastructure-as-a-Service and Data-as-a-Service and it will spur the adoption of Big Data also by smaller and medium sized organisations.

IIA calls this adoption “ready-made analytics in the cloud”. These solutions offer an attractive alternative for organisations that want to start with Big Data or want to easily scale existing programs. Gartnerpredicts that cloud computing will become the bulk in IT spending by 2016 and 2014 will be a turning point in the acceptance of the cloud as part of a Big Data strategy.

Security to protect the privacy

If there is on thing that the NSA documents have shown, governments from around the world have almost unprecedented access to data files from organisations and consumers. Organisations will start to focus more heavily on securing their data to protect the privacy of their customers. The first signs for this are that tech companies call for ‘aggressive’ NSA reforms at the White House meeting in December 2013. Executives from 15 companies expressed their concern that the NSA’s wide-ranging surveillance activities had undermined the trust of their users. Of course, a reform of the NSA activities is one side of the coin; the other side will be increased security measures by the companies to protect their data.

More and more organisations will start to use Big Data techniques to secure their IT infrastructure and prevent from being hacked and have data monitored or stolen. Log data will form an important aspect in this and organisations will start to see the importance in monitoring and analysing their IT infrastructure log data in order to keep their infrastructure and data safe. This will help to restore and keep the trust of their customers.

Personalization will become personal

Consumers are creating massive amounts of data through every click, like, tweet, cell-phone call, purchase and self-tracking applications they use. Companies like Amazon have already used these kinds of data for many years to create a personal online shopping experience with recommendations, personal homepages, personal discounts or personally targeted mass-email campaigns. However, in 2014 more organisations will also start to see the value in such a personalized approach, be it online or offline.

A good example is the Australian shoe retailer Shoes of Prey, who have developed an analytics system that enables them to look at individual customer-spend and profitability, and allows them to begin upselling based on the fashion tastes of its clients.

Personalization is making a giant leap forward in the coming years and 2014 could very well be the inflection point in the offering of personalized offers and the acceptance of it by consumers. Consumers will start to see that their data is valuable and they do want something in return for providing their data. So consumers are willing to cooperate and share their data if it brings them personalized discounts.

Education will be essential for success

As more organisations are trying to understand Big Data and preparing their staff for the Big Data era, education becomes a crucial aspect. Already in 2011, McKinsey  predicted a shortage in the coming years of Big Data scientists and Big Data managers. Organisations will therefore stimulate their employees to be more Big Data skilled. Many organisations are heading for a major skill gap and will have to take action to be ready for the big data era. Also fresh-graduates or students will see the Big Data trend and in the competitive jobs market will feel the need to differentiate to stand a chance on the job market.

Therefore in 2014 we will see a steep increase in the available online and offline big data courses. Apart from the online universities such as Coursera or Udacity, many more universities from around the world will start offering a big data course or program. These courses or programs will range from Big Data strategy courses to deep analytics and machine-learning programs for Big Data scientists and anything in between to cater for the massive increase in Big Data students.

Big data moves into mixed data

In the past years Big Data was all about obtaining as much data as possible and the perception was that you require massive datasets to gain insights from those data sources. In the coming year however, organisations will start to see that the most important aspect of Big Data is not so much the volume of a dataset, but more the insights derived from combining several, smaller, datasets. Organisations that do not have exabytes or petabytes can still obtain very valuable insights with smaller, but more, data sets. Of course, more data does mean more accurate insights but it does not per se mean more insights. In the coming year, more organisations will understand this and take their first steps into the direction of Big Data. They will start mixing and combining several data sets that they will analyse to derive insights. So in 2014 Big Data will become mixed data.

It’s time for a Proof of Concept

The past years we saw a lot of talk around Big Data. More conferences, new books, more Big Data startups and more interesting best practices are being shared and distributed online and offline. In 2014 many more organisations will start working towards a Big Data strategy and start developing a Proof of Concept (PoC) to investigate what Big Data can mean for them. The PoC will help organisations gain a better understanding of Big Data, will help them get educated and will help them to be better able to predict the ROI of future Big Data projects. A Proof of Concept is a vital part of a Big Data strategy when you start with Big Data.

As Alec Gardner, industry consulting director at Teradata Australia and New Zealand, states: “More companies will roll up their sleeves and ‘have a try’ by starting to bring in new data sources and technologies to answer new business questions and gain insight either not possible or too difficult previously”. This will be a very important aspect as it will be the ignition required to get the Big Data engine started.

The above-described seven Big Data trends for 2014 will be an important aspect of Big Data in 2014 and organisations will have to ensure that the Big Data strategy that they develop is geared towards the exponential growth of data that can be expected in the coming years. 2013 was already exciting as we saw many things happening, but 2014 will be truly interesting as Big Data will become common language in boardrooms and organisations start to experiment with it.

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India May Relax E-Commerce Rules, Opening The Door Further For Amazon And Other Global Giants

As India prepares to reconsider the ban on foreign investments in the country’s e-commerce sector, two of the world’s biggest e-commerce companies — Amazon and eBay — are anxiously hoping to conquer what they refer to as their last frontier.

India’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has put out a note inviting various stakeholders to share feedback on the existing regulations restricting foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail e-commerce. Sources at Amazon India and eBay’s operations in the country have told us that both the companies are aggressively preparing their pitches urging the policymakers to revoke the e-commerce ban.

So far, both Amazon and eBay have had no choice but to operate as online marketplaces in India, limiting their ability to compete effectively with local rivals such as Flipkart. In the marketplace model, companies such as eBay do not own any inventory, or sell any of their own merchandise to Indian shoppers. They are only allowed to offer products from third-party sellers.

In February 2013, Amazon’s global vice president, Paul Misener, had also met with an Indian trade minister, seeking amendments in the laws restricting e-commerce.

This is what the Indian laws say on foreign investment in e-commerce:

E-commerce activities refer to the activity of buying and selling by a company through the e-commerce platform. Such companies would engage only in Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce and not in retail trading, inter-alia implying that existing restrictions on FDI in domestic trading would be applicable to e-commerce as well.

India’s nearly $3.1 billion e-commerce market (excluding online travel industry) is dwarfed in size by China’s nearly $200 billion market for online sales, but it’s expected to grow by over seven times to $22 billion in five years, according to a CLSA report published in November 2013.

While existing regulations don’t allow foreign companies to run full e-commerce businesses in India, companies like eBay have become active investors in local startups that can.

EBay beat Amazon and Wal-Mart in April 2013 to lead a $50 million funding round in Snapdeal. Meanwhile, Amazon started its India site in June 2013: it is based on marketplace model that does not engage in any kind of direct sales to comply with the local regulations.

Up to now, the Indian government has kept companies like Amazon at bay as a kind of protectionist move, to encourage local business development. In September 2012, the Indian government allowed 100% foreign investment in single-brand retail, and up to 51% in multi-brand retail. However, the new policy excluded foreign investment norms in the country’s e-commerce sector.

But today, India is struggling to cope with its slowest economic growth since 2005, and is increasingly seeking ways to attract more foreign investment. Wooing offline companies like Tesco — the world’s biggest retailer — was a part of this strategy; and now it appears that the state is ready to give online companies the same freedom to trade.

However, in a bizarre move, the country has yet not okayed foreign investment in e-commerce despite allowing the same for offline retail operations of Wal-Mart and Tesco.

The Business Standard newspaper reported on December 31 that India could actually allow FDI in e-commerce by April this year.

To be sure, it’s not just Amazon and eBay praying anxiously for the current e-commerce ban to be lifted. Even Flipkart, India’s biggest e-commerce company, had to establish a separate subsidiary, Flipkart Holdings Singapore, to get around the Indian regulations. Flipkart also created WS Retail, a separate entity that owns and delivers over 90% of the products sold on its site.

It’s not just US e-commerce giants that could stand to benefit if at all India allows foreign investment in the sector. China’s biggest e-commerce company Alibaba could benefit too. However, Alibaba has kept a low profile in India, and it intends to keep it that way.

Since the beginning of 2010, venture capital worth $1.3 billion has been invested in Indian e-commerce startups. However, not every e-commerce startup in India has benefited from these investments. In 2013 alone, nearly 150 e-commerce startups in the country had to shut shop, with some 70-80% of those still around being in dire need of funds.

By allowing foreign investments in e-commerce, India could trigger a fresh wave of excitement among the e-commerce startups and their investors waiting nervously for the exits. The question mark will be whether the government will manage to take such a bold decision ahead of the upcoming general elections later this year.

Article : http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/03/india-may-relax-e-commerce-rules-opening-the-door-further-for-amazon-and-other-global-giants/

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The Regional Council of Languedoc-Roussillon improves business intelligence with Talend

To free itself from its former point-to-point data integration system based on manual scripts and to make its developments sustainable, the Regional Council of Languedoc-Roussillon decided to deploy Talend Enterprise Data Integration

"Easy maintenance has allowed us to reduce costs since, due to the performance of the Talend solution, we spend less time in development, bug tracking and maintenance, time that we can devote to other strategic projects."

--- Katia Levé Head of Research and Application Solutions in the Department of Information Systems

The Regional Council of Languedoc-Roussillon is primarily responsible for the economic development of the five departments that make up the region (Aude, Gard, Hérault, Lozère and Pyrénées Orientales, which contain more than 2.5 million people and more than 127,000 companies). It also is responsible for education and research, professional training, public transportation, territorial and environmental action, tourism, social action and culture. Showing the highest rate of population growth in France after Corsica (+33,000 inhabitants per year since 1999) and a rate of employment growth of about 2% per year, the region has a budget €1.17 billion, an increase of 1.3% , that it primarily dedicates to investment, economic support and youth-related activities.
A BI system to increase the visibility of elected officials and leaders
While the economy of the region is mainly based on construction, public services (health and education), tourism and viticulture, the major challenge for the progress and growth of the Languedoc- Roussillon region is wealth and job creation. Business and employment are central to the regional economic policy. Therefore, the region supports and promotes private initiatives in the design, implementation, coordination and evaluation of regional business support programs. However, the duties and concerns of the Regional Council are varied and it is essential that every elected leader in the region is fully informed of the progress of activities under its responsibility.
This is why the Regional Council has launched a vast BI program to give each player a clear view of the going-ons of the region. Significant amounts of data are extracted from business applications (financial management and accounting, professional training, school management and maintenance, HRM, grant management, etc.) and consolidated in order to draw a clear picture of each project via reporting in Business Objects.
“Previously, we had a data integration system based on point-to-point interfaces (each application is connected to another via scripts). This system became increasingly difficult to manage and maintain, and each development of the information system made it more and more complex,” explains Katia Levé, Head of Research and Application Solutions in the Department of Information Systems of the Languedoc –Roussillon Regional Council. “The evolution of our BI system should respond to the consolidation logic, including through the establishment of generic flows and web services.”
Talend Enterprise Data Integration to overcome the complexity of integration flows
The IT architecture of the Languedoc-Roussillon Regional Council is mainly based on open source technologies (Linux, PostgreSQL databases, etc.). Therefore, the Department of Information Systems has naturally studied the opportunity to deploy a solution for data integration in harmony with the open source philosophy of the region.
“Talend's solutions meet the standards of the Regional Council’s technical infrastructure. We chose to adopt a progressive approach: tests were conducted using Talend Open Studio for Data Integration with a gradual buildup and migration to the Talend Enterprise Data Integration solution provided in stride,” adds Katia Levé. “The ‘Enterprise’ version of the solution can support a higher complexity, provides more advanced support, uses more efficient flow administration tools and allows us to complete collaborative developments, all while managing configurations.”
The data stored in the Data Warehouse originates from two dozen heterogeneous applications and the data consolidation and consumption needs are significant in various fields. 1100 data flows are operated with the Talend solution. “We have developed many dashboards for different populations – the Regional Council consists of 22 different business divisions. In all, we have more than 5000 Business Objects reports,” continues Katia Levé.
Adaptability, scalability, user-friendliness and cost reduction
One of the main benefits highlighted by the Regional Council is the scalability of the BI system. “With Talend, we had the opportunity to start on a limited basis, and then expand gradually with a minimal initial investment. To go one step further and add intelligence (quality, control, profiling, monitoring, automatic corrections, etc.) to our integration flows, we are now exploring the possibility of deploying Talend ESB,” confirms Katia Levé.
For Katia Levé, Talend's solutions are easy to use, thanks to very user-friendly graphical programming. “Moreover,” she adds, “the Java knowledge and experience possessed by our developers is an advantage, especially for complex processing. They are able to enter the code to tweak any process if necessary.”
She particularly appreciates how easy it is to update and maintain data integration flows. “As it subcontracts its developments to outsourcers (now Bull), the Regional Council did not want to tie itself to a proprietary technology vendor to sustain its development. Meanwhile, this easy maintenance has allowed us to reduce costs since, due to the performance of the Talend solution, we spend less time in development, bug tracking and maintenance, time that we can devote to other strategic projects.”
In conclusion, Katia Levé highlights the contributions of the Talend open source model. “Aside from the fact that a local government like ours strictly controls the spending of public money, which sometimes in our case limits the use of proprietary solutions that are much more expensive than Talend, other factors enter into the equation. For example, the fact that the solution, as a standard, provides a wealth of components that allows us to cover all of our information systems without needing costly additional developments. Meanwhile, the community of Talend users also offers valuable assistance and guarantees the sustainability of our developments,” she concludes.  “This falls perfectly in line with our philosophy and our efforts to decompartmentalize and open up our information system.”

Source : http://www.talend.com/ecosystem/customer-reference/the-regional-council-of-languedoc-roussillon-improves-business

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7 Ways Big Data Could Revolutionize Our Lives by 2020

We know that big data is changing the way we live and work. It is changing societies and changing businesses. On this platform we have included many best practices that show concrete example of how this is happening. To illustrate the vast possibilities even more, Whoishostingthis has released an info graphic that shows seven ways that big data will change our lives in 2020. Although some might be still far away, there are many examples in the info graphic that are already appearing; from better education for everyone or self-driving cars.

Source: Who Is Hosting This.com

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12 Fast-Growing, High-Paying Jobs In 2014

What are the hottest jobs of 2014?

CareerBuilder teamed up with Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI) to identify the occupations that grew by at least 7% from 2010 to 2013, are projected to grow in 2014, and pay at least $22 per hour.
"In addition to higher pay levels and solid growth rates, what many of these jobs have in common is a talent shortage," Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder and co-author of the book "The Talent Equation," tells Business Insider. "Recruitment of skilled labor in specialized areas like information technology and health care has become highly competitive."
The list below, released on Thursday, reveals the jobs that are the fastest-growing, highest-paying for 2014:

1. Software Developers, Applications and Systems Software

What they do: Design computer programs
Total employment in 2013: 1,042,402
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 11%
Median hourly earnings: $45.06

2. Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists

What they do: Study market conditions in local, regional, or national areas
Total employment in 2013: 438,095
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 14%
Median hourly earnings: $29.10

3. Training and Development Specialists

What they do: Design and conduct training and development programs
Total employment in 2013: 231,898
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 8%
Median hourly earnings: $27.14

4. Financial Analysts

What they do: Assess the performance of stocks, bonds, and other types of investments
Total employment in 2013: 247,159
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 7%
Median hourly earnings: $37.34

5. Physical Therapists

What they do: Help patients who have injuries or illnesses manage their pain
Total employment in 2013: 207,132
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 7%
Median hourly earnings: $37.93

6. Web Developers

What they do: Create websites and help companies build a brand
Total employment in 2013: 136,921
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 11%
Median hourly earnings: $27.84

7. Logisticians

What they do: Analyze and coordinate the supply chain organization
Total employment in 2013: 127,892
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 10%
Median hourly earnings: $35.08

8. Database Administrators

What they do: Use software to store and organize data, such as financial information and customer shipping records
Total employment in 2013: 119,676
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 10%
Median hourly earnings: $37.39

9. Meeting, Convention and Event Planners

What they do: Coordinate meetings and events
Total employment in 2013: 87,082
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 14%
Median hourly earnings: $22.56

10. Interpreters and Translators

What they do: Convert information from one language to another
Total employment in 2013: 69,887
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 14%
Median hourly earnings: $22.39

11. Petroleum Engineers

What they do: Design and develop methods for extracting oil and gas from deposits below the earth's surface
Total employment in 2013: 40,733
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 21%
Median hourly earnings: $63.67

12. Information Security Analysts What they do: Plan, implement, upgrade, or monitor security measures for the protection of computer networks and information
Total employment in 2013: 75,995
Job growth from 2010 to 2013: 8%
Median hourly earnings: $41.62
EMSI data is collected from more than 90 federal and state sources, such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau, and state labor departments.

Article Source : http://www.businessinsider.in/12-Fast-Growing-High-Paying-Jobs-In-2014/articleshow/27252175.cms

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Three Reasons to Check Out Google's Cloud Solution for Hadoop

Most of us have heard about Apache Hadoop. Most of us have heard about cloud computing, but it seems that combining the two buzz words may be what brings big data analysis into the hands of small and medium-sized businesses that don’t have the resources to build up Hadoop infrastructure on their own. Why is this?

While Hadoop is a much more affordable solution than a traditional warehouse for storing large amounts of data, the hardware, operational costs and expertise to set it up and run it can still be significant as well as time consuming.

Cloud computing combined with Hadoop allows small businesses to use big data without having to purchase and manage the hardware themselves.

To illustrate this point, let’s take a look at Google’s cloud solution for Hadoop: Google Compute Engine running MapR Distribution for Hadoop.

1. Get Started Immediately 

Google Compute Engine allows businesses to sign up and get set up within minutes. This means small business owners can compete on the same level of the big data playing field without the huge startup costs of purchasing hardware. In addition, since the system is enterprise-ready, business owners can start getting insights without making complicated configurations or code changes. 

2. Record-Setting Speed

Google Compute Engine partnered with the enterprise Hadoop vendor, MapR, and together they beat the standing MinuteSort record. To set such a record, Google Compute Engine sorted 15 billion 100-byte records in 60 seconds. That is 1.5 trillion bytes in one minute.

3. Cost-Effective Scaling

Let’s say for a minute that a business already has a big data solution, but occasionally it is too small to run the computation the business needs. It is usually too costly and time-consuming to expand the solution for a temporary situation. That is when the scalability and flexibility of cloud computing becomes particularly valuable. The Google Cloud Platform offers per-minute billing and scaling to thousands of cores, so companies can run an extra large project for a few hours and only pay for the time spent rather than paying to expand their infrastructure rather than having to skip the project altogether.

For business leaders looking for a big data solution that is very cost-effective, enterprise-ready and scalable, it seems looking to the cloud may be the next frontier.

Original Article : http://smartdatacollective.com/michelenemschoff/173196/check-out-google-s-cloud-solution-hadoop

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