Big Data – what does it mean?  Ask 5 people, get 5 different answers as it means many different things to different people. I do believe in Big Data and the value that can be achieved as data driven decisions and applications create immense value by utilizing data sources to discover, present and operationalize important business insights.  However, what I am seeing in the marketplace is confusing as every tech company claims to have a solution for analyzing the huge amounts of data businesses create. I challenge this reality … Do these tech companies really know how to use this data?  Or are they jumping into the hype and creating what is now being dubbed “Hadumps” and “Data Swamps”?   

Here is my belief … data on its own is meaningless – period. The value of data is not the data itself – it is what you do with the data.  For data to be useful you first need to know what data you need, otherwise you just get tempted to know everything and that is not a strategy, it’s an act of desperation that is doomed to end in failure. Why go to all the time and trouble collecting data that you won’t or can’t use to deliver business insights? Focus on the things that matter the most otherwise you’ll drown in data. Data is a strategic asset but it’s only valuable if it’s used constructively and appropriately to deliver results.