508. Big Data - The Real World of Big Data

The Real World of Big Data

The benefits of Big Data are often spoken of in the future tense. As in, “Big Data will someday provide enterprises of all types critical insights that allow for increased profitability, improved efficiency and other untold riches.”

Same goes for the technology. Hadoop, some say, will be the foundation of data storage and analytics in the enterprise once it’s proven enterprise-ready.

The reality, however, is that Big Data is today – here and now – delivering on its many promises. We at Wikibon have been documenting Big Data in the Real World for the last two years, including publishing a series of vertical-specific research notes highlighting how enterprises in retail, banking, media, utilities and pharma are leveraging Big Data analytics to drive performance.

We were also the first analyst firm, in February of 2012, to publish a comprehensive Big Data market size report. Today, Wikibon’s Big Data Vendor Revenue and Market Forecast 2012-2017 provides figures on real revenue that vendors, large and small, are today deriving from Big Data products and services.

Today, we’re proud to debut the latest offering in our ongoing efforts to chronicle the reality of Big Data, this Real World of Big Data infographic. Our goal with the infographic is to communicate the real world applications of and revenue created by Big Data in the enterprise in a visually exciting way. You’ll notice a handful of Big Data uses cases, including dynamic price optimization at Sears, real-time marketing campaign analysis by Lyris and analytics to support drug discovery at Bristol Myers Squibb.

There’s no question we have a long way to go before Big Data is ubiquitous in the enterprise. But, as our infographic makes clear, there are plenty of Big Data success stories to talk about in the here and now. Have an interesting use case or success story with Big Data? Share it in the comments or Tweet us at @Wikibon and @jeffreyfkelly.