De-mystifying Big Data

Big Data it’s one of those terms that means different things to different people. Some people view big data as an analytical cost saver and some see it as the data equivalent of an episode of Hoarders.

For BethAnn Pepoli, CTO for State & Local and Education, EMC, big data means:

• Big Data is a phenomenon defined by the rapid acceleration in the expanding volume of high velocity, complex, and diverse types of data. Big Data is often defined along three dimensions — volume, velocity, and variety.
• This phenomenon represents both a challenge in making sense of the data available to governments, and an opportunity for government agencies that seek to exploit it to enhance the business of government.
• Addressing the challenge and capturing the opportunity requires advanced techniques and technologies to enable the capture, storage, distribution, management, and analysis of the information.
• Government leaders should strive to understand the “Art of the Possible” enabled by advances in techniques and technologies to manage and exploit Big Data. Example of use cases and live case studies are critical in understanding the potential of Big Data.

Pepoli and TechAmerica have just finished “Demystifying Big Data: A Practical Guide To Transforming The Business of Government,” which provides a roadmap to using “BigData” to better serve Americans.”

She told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program that big data and cloud computing are closely related.

“Cloud computing enables access to information from multiple locations and data sources in a timely fashion. It makes managing large data sets possible,” said Pepoli.