Big data makes mainstream move

According to the Wall Street Journal's Michael Hickins, big data analytics has finally become a popular and mainstream concept. He said companies have begun to advertise big data solutions and warehouses through large and conspicuous billboards, signaling the end of big data as a differentiator.

According to Hickins, the future of big data analytics will be based not on whether a company uses big data, but how. Companies can no longer count on simply having an analytics program to stand out in the field and will have to use it to complement an overall business plan. This is the ideal usage case for analytics – as an enabling technology rather than for its own end.

Hickins verified his findings with research by Gartner and McKinsey analysts. The researchers found that big data is now ubiquitous at large companies, with every firm working on its own projects. Hickins stated that, unlike some ideas that have entered the mainstream, big data has not been abandoned by insiders and market leaders.

The New York Times recently reported that some in the big data field are especially eager to see the technology hit the mainstream. The source reported that scientists are at work on systems that will make high-level data tools as easy to use as possible.