A Match Made Somewhere: Big Data and the Internet of Things - Forbes

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Howard Baldwin Contributor
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11/24/2014 @ 11:06AM

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A Match Made Somewhere: Big

Data and the Internet of Things
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Its become clear in the past few years that few technologies live in a vacuum.
Theyre more likely to be connected or related and sharing data, which is why
its always better to think of the enterprise holistically rather than in silos.
(Imagine how much more efficiently the federal government would run if it
stored one record of each citizen, rather than one at the Internal Revenue
Service, another at the Social Security Administration, another at the
Transportation Security Administration, and so on.)
Thats also why youre hearing the term SMAC bandied about more recently.
Thats the amalgam of social, mobile, analytics, and cloud, because the four
work better together than individually.
Similarly, the close sibling of analytics, big data, also feeds off the Internet of
Things. Admittedly, I think were much further along with big data than we
are with the Internet of Things, especially since, as Forbes contributor Gil
Press noted wryly earlier this year, the Internet of Things has surpassed big
data on the Gartner hype curve.
But once the Internet of Things gets rolling, stand back. Were going to have
data spewing at us from all directions from appliances, from machinery,
from train tracks, from shipping containers, from power stations. I loved the
infographic on the Big Data Startup site about all the ways well come to
collect sensor data. If that doesnt get you thinking about how to handle
real-time data feeds, nothing will. But heres a suggestion: start now.
You may still have time. GigaOms Derrick Harris noted last week that the
Internet of Things isnt producing a data deluge yet. But the analytics
challenge is nonetheless looming. As Harris rightfully says, after citing
Ciscos prediction of 21 billion connected devices by 2018, the companies
that will be storing all that device data are less concerned [about] sheer
volume and more concerned about making it usable.
Some companies are already starting. As Drew Robb noted in his Enterprise
Apps Today article last week, How IoT Will Change Big Data Analytics, Duke
5/1/2015 1:39 PM

A Match Made Somewhere: Big Data and the Internet of Things - Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/howardbaldwin/2014/11/24/a-match-made-...

Energys Emerging Technology office is thinking about how to take advantage

of communication from buildings, vehicles, people, power plants, and smart
meters.
As one of Robbs sources noted, Every enterprise needs to factor in how the
Internet of Things is going to affect them and their business, and must
respond by establishing the right infrastructure to support this level of Big
Data and analytics. If they dont, they will fall behind.
On the other hand, there are others who arent responding with any urgency.
According to Jeff Bertoluccis news report in InformationWeek last week, the
Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) released a survey
showing that while a shade over half of respondents believe Internet of
Things opportunities justify the hoopla, an almost exact percentage, 48%,
see more hype than substance.
Bertolucci suggests, quite accurately, that IT executives may be hesitating
because of a lack of standards and the potential inability of sensors to share
data. But as a CompTIA executive notes also accurately that this little
thing called the Internet required certain protocols to become commonly
used before we started deriving full benefit from it.
But no matter when you start today, tomorrow, this weekend, not later
remember this sound advice from a Booz Allen consultant, quoted by ZDNets
Larry Dignan last week. Machines do analytics; humans do analysis.
Dignan added, Computers are good at detail and examining the past, but
real data science requires imagination and cognitive ability.
The moral of the story: you can have all the sensors in the world, but youre
still going to need someone to figure out what theyre telling you.

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