Higher education becomes big data haven

Large stores of unstructured data can appear anywhere. Businesses have them, government agencies are learning to harness them and, according to a recent CIO magazine report, universities increasingly have to deal with them. According to the source, higher education networks resemble companies' with bring your own device policies, but on a massive scale.

Big data analytics is based on making sense of a wide variety of information faster than was previously possible. The CIo report found schools are using the high-speed monitoring capabilities that come from big data programs to stay abreast of current threats to the network in a manner that would be impossible with traditional monitoring methods.

"Universities have some of the most complex IT infrastructures in the world, and this makes them extremely vulnerable," software firm security director Mark Seward told the source.  "It's the ultimate BYOD situation. Security threats are constantly evolving."

Modern technology is complicated, meaning big data analytics is uniquely suited to keep track of it. Network World contributor Jon Oltsik stated that tech staffers could have a difficult time finding out what the normal performance of their IT infrastructure looks like without big data technology to make sense of the myriad data points generated.