'Big Data' : Analyse this

When you update your status on Facebook, you are adding to the 30billion pieces of content that already exists. You can store all the music in the world in a disk drive that costs USD 600. There were 5 billion mobile phone users in the world in 2010.

Each day billions of users are adding information to the huge ocean of data. As storing such information gets cheaper, entrepreneurs, business consultants, scientists, mathematicians and physicians are all diving deep to make sense of it all.

[caption id=“attachment_9870” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The sign at the IBM facility near Boulder, Colarado. The firm’s smart planet campaign already indicated about the future data world. Rick Wilking/Reuters”]  [/caption]

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Big Data , as they are called, are data sets that are beyond commonly used storage tools to capture, manage and process within a specific time.

Entrepreneurs in America are hoping that the next big innovation or discovery will emerge from this vast ocean.

Mckinsey Global Institute, a think tank of the consulting firm Mckinsey, estimates in a new report, that Big Data can play a significant economic role to the benefit of not only private commerce but also of national economies and their citizens.

Mckinsey has produced related reports advising governments and companies on smart management of data.

Semil Shah, an entrepreneur based in US, argues in an article that Big Data needs to think bigger. He highlights the effort being made in US on this. He is of the view that within those fast moving data sets are our next big discoveries wating for new equations to unearth them.

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Remember the smarter planet campaign that IBM ran last year? There were hints in those commercials of where the world is heading.

“In April 2011, US Library of Congress collected 235 terabytes of data. As many as 15 out of 17 sectors in US have more data stored per company than the US library of Congress,” says the MGI report.

This has perhaps prompted companies to create and innovate around Big Data. Everyone wants to build a business around all this. Many are changing their business strategy.

Lattice Engines, a company founded in 2006 in America as a data integration solutions company, now sells sales intelligence software. Shashi Upadhyaya, one of the co-founders of the company said in an interview with India Knowledge @Wharton that anyone who is collecting and capturing proprietary data will enable future productivity improvement.

Earlier this year, predictions were made on the rise of Big Data. According to CIO.in, which quoted IDC data, use is expected to grow by as much as 44 times, amounting to some 35.2 zettabytes (ZB - a billion terabytes) globally.

While IBM has resources to hire and find the right talent to do so, the opportunity in diving deep into data could create some challenges.

The Mckinsey Global Institute (MGI) estimates that US alone would need 140,000 to 190,000 deep data analysts. The country will also need 1.5m data savvy managers to exploit the ‘big data’ in US.

Herein lies an opportunity for India’s entrepreneurs, government and IT services companies. It is time to move away from being called ‘chop shops’ and innovate. India can leverage the army of smart people to participate in this discovery mission. It will be foolish if the country does not move quickly to wrest the initiative.