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January 27, 2014 • Issue 14:01:02

The hope and hype

ushered in by big data

is wearing," he said. And that's not something that can be
quantified by data sets.

Leslie Bradshaw, Chief Operating Officer at Guide, a
technology startup that mines data, conceded "big data"
may be a misnomer. She said it is "more of a dynamic" than
anything in particular.
Big data, big business

Whatever term is used, the fact is that more data is
available today than ever before, and the pie keeps getting
bigger. Gartner Inc. expects the volume of data generated
by companies to grow 800 percent over the next five years,
with 80 percent of that data in unstructured form. The
research company International Data Corp. estimated that
spending on solutions to gather and analyze data will
reach $16 billion by 2015.

our years after the official end of the Great Wikibon Project, an online technology resource, expects
Recession, small businesses, especially retail- big data analytics to be a $50 billion market opportunity
ers, are struggling to remain relevant and grow by 2018, supported primarily by cloud computing, which
F sales. Many believe the solution lies in the mas- offers unlimited storage capacity and access on demand.
sive amounts of data generated by consumers in today's
connected world. They call it "big data," and numerous As Bradshaw stated, new data analytics is being driven
solutions aim to help companies large and small leverage by the mountains of transactional data being produced by
big data to competitive advantage. However, Ron Shevlin, companies, financial institutions and the web, especially
Senior Analyst at Aite Group LLC, described the promise social networks, along with mobile and cloud technologies.
of big data as nothing more than that. "It's all assertions
and claims," he said in a recent interview. "The transformation of mobile devices into mobile wallets
represents the most important link between big data
Shevlin, an avowed numbers cruncher, said the problem and the consumer experience," Bradshaw wrote in Big
confronting businesses isn't a lack of data. "There's more Data and What it Means, published by the U.S. Chamber
data being tracked today than ever before thanks to
mobile," he said. But more isn't always better. "Simply
throwing more data into the pile usually produces Contributed articles inside by:
minimal improvement in predictive capability," he added.
Dale S. Laszig ...................................................................................... 44
There are too many unknown variables shaping Benjamin Abel .................................................................................... 48
individual behaviors to know what really prompts
someone to make particular decisions. "I may purchase Jeff Fortney ...........................................................................................52
something simply because I like the dress the sales clerk TOC on page 3

Continued on page 38