Think about it this way: A small amount of data can be easy to manage and straightforward analysis can be gleaned from it. After all, there’s only so much data to consider.
HP
Nate Silver at the HP Big Data Conference in Boston in August 2015
But when data gets big, big problems can arise. That’s the message from Nate Silver, who works with data a lot. Silver is the founder of data-driven journalism site FiveThirtyEight (now owned by ESPN); he spoke at the HP Big Data Conference in Boston recently, outlining some of the problems that can come along with big data.
Where to put it
Silver says that even small and medium amounts of data can be difficult to manage, both technically in terms of how to store it and in terms of analyzing it. So, the more data companies have the even more complex the problems of managing it can become. Do you buy hardware? Do you store it in the cloud? How often will you need to access it? Can you deal with latency? These are the types of questions that will help you decide how to manage your data.
Big bias
One issue with a lot of data is that it can create bias. Let’s say you have two polls, it can be pretty easy to decipher what those polls are saying. Now if you’re analyzing 100 surveys, there can be much more nuanced issues within that data. Ever heard of that saying that you can make statistics say whatever you want? Well the more data you have, the more wiggle room there can be to sway the stats.
Silver referenced a book by Daniel Kahneman titled “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” the point of which is that sometimes people rush decisions based on a subset of data (thinking fast). A better practice is to “think slow” and really rationalize data. With big data, thinking fast (not analyzing the data fully) can lead to false positives.
Big complexity
Silver calls this extracting the “signal from the noise.” Said another way, it’s the problem of finding the needle in the haystack. The more data you have, sometimes the harder it can be to find true value from the data.
That’s not what I was looking for…
Imagine Google Maps giving you directions and suggesting an alternate, “faster” route. You take it only to find that it’s a dirt road under construction. Sometimes big data systems think they have found a shortcut, but in reality, it’s not exactly what the user was looking for.
ARN launches new-look awards at 2018 Judges’ Lunch
Introducing the ARN Innovation Awards, launched to the channel at the 2018 Judges’ Lunch in Sydney. With more than 180 judges now part of the voting panel, the new-look awards will reflect the changing dynamics of the channel, recognising excellence across customer value and innovation - spanning start-ups, partners, distributors and vendors.
Meet the leading StorageCraft partners across A/NZ
StorageCraft honoured its top performing partners across Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ), recognising channel excellence following a strong year of growth.
ARN Connect - How can partners create customer value through cloud and security?
This exclusive ARN Connect event, in association with Juniper Networks and Westcon-Comstor, deep dived into the key customer priorities during the next 12 months, outlining emerging partner opportunities while drawing up a blueprint for cloud and security success.
HP 
