8 big data trends and predictions for 2017

Analytics   |   
Published January 10, 2017   |   

The term Big Data is more than 20 years old, having been coined in 2005 by O’Reilly Media’s Roger Magoulas. What we mean by the term scales larger by the minute, seemingly, since more than 80% of all available data has been generated in the last three years as Big Data analytics went mainstream.
But what is the future of Big Data? Here are 7 predictions about trends and the impact Big Data will have in the coming year.

2017 Big Data Predictions

How will the evolution and growth of Big Data impact you in the next 12 months?

Big Data workloads will increasingly utilize cloud computing in hybrid manner

This prediction is akin to saying the sun will rise tomorrow. It’s an easy one, but what is important is how the Cloud will be used. Kunal Agarwal, CEO of Unravel Data says, “a large number [of business users] will move to a hybrid cloud/on-premises model” for both data storage and data processing. Use of the Cloud, Agarwal suggests, will increase as companies recognize that the security threat once associated with cloud computing is overblown, and this might be true, at least when it is recognized that security in the Cloud is stronger than security on many private servers.

Use of Hadoop and Spark will grow significantly

Hadoop is a Java-based programming framework used to store and process huge data stacks. It is an open-source platform and part of the Apache Software Foundation. Spark runs on Hadoop or Apache Mesos or as a stand-alone in cluster mode. It can access data from a wide range of sources including HDFS, HBase, S3, EC2, Mesos and Cassandra. These and a handful of similar tools are, to use a cliché that is absolutely appropriate here, taking Big Data analytics to the next level.

If you’re not using Hadoop and Spark, you’ll find behind the competition

This is more an application from the above than a prediction. Agarwal says of these popular Big Data analytics tools, “We have only touched the tip of the iceberg for what Hadoop and Spark are capable of offering when running mission-critical jobs on high-performance Big Data platforms.”

Demand for data scientists will continue its ascent

According to Indeed.com, the demand for data scientists is headed back up after a brief downturn in the middle of 2016. This is music to the ears of the growing number of college and university students graduating or working towards a degree in the field. Most graduates are being hired by Global 2000 companies, but that leads to our next prediction.

More midsize and small companies will make use of Big Data

Bernard Marr, board member of Data Informed and a bestselling author, points out that it’s not just the big players that are benefiting from Big Data’s potential in key areas. To summarize, he says small and mid-size firms will use the information in the same way large companies do to:
Learn about customers buying habits, motivations, preferences and what makes them enthusiastic and loyal fans of a given business
Identify trends that will assist the companies in getting out in front of the curve with marketing, advertising, CRM, customer service and the products and services that will be in demand soon
Use the same types of processes to make improvements in their specific field such as education, health and public safety.
Marr says Big Data will also be used by small companies to improve the way things are done, recruit, train and utilize talent and stay abreast of what the competition is doing.

The Chiefs will learn the ways of Big Data

Because, as Jeff Klaus of the General Motors Data Center says, “data centers and IT strategies continue to have a larger impact on an enterprise’s bottom line,” executives of the highest ranks will pay more attention to them. This will mean that more than the CIO or CTO getting more involved. As Big Data becomes a bigger focus, the entire C-suite will be involved in decisions and implementation or the enterprise will lag the competition.

Greater availability and the increasing speed of the Internet will contribute significantly to Big Data

The amount of wireless data used every minute of the day in just the US is currently 18 billion megabytes, according to the 2016 Domosphere Data Never Sleeps report. Situation is similar elsewhere, proportionally speaking, as more and more people are getting connected over increasingly faster and better connections. A decade ago, broadband internet was considered a luxury, and now, a bare necessity. Countries around the world are coming up with new solutions (like NBN in Australia, for example) to keep their population on the front of the Internet revolution.
All that data becomes the next stack of Big Data that can be analysed for thousands of purposes in sales, marketing, education, security, medicine, meteorology, entertainment, sport and on and on. And on. Usable data is being generated Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Instagram, Google and hundreds of other popular platforms. It is also being produced by HVAC systems, medical machines and devices, smartphones and tablets, home security systems and the billions of other devices in the IoT.
The math is simple: More people have Internet access and more devices are connected. Multiply that by faster and more reliable connectivity, and the result is tremendous growth in the Big Data available to be analysed. This trend is sure to continue on an upward trajectory for many years.

What Growing Big Data Means for You

This could be a lengthy post by itself, so we’ll provide just a taste. If you are a Big Data user, it will be essential to know or have personnel working with/for you that knows exactly what these trends mean and how to take advantage of them to grow the business. When you’re wearing your consumer hat, expect product and service offerings and the associated outreach to you to be beautifully tailored and targeted to your lifestyle. In every other area touched by Big Data analysis, simply put the word “better” in front: Better education, better training, better food production, better medical care, and better security at home, at work and in the world, just to get us started. That’s the potential, at least. In short, when used appropriately, the hope of Big Data is a better world for all