Big data making certain IT roles more important

The need to mine structured and unstructured data has become essential to many businesses as the big data trend has taken the IT world by storm in recent years. In addition to having the best analytics tools available to manage these large information sets, companies also must have skilled personnel to perform important tasks.

A recent Wired report by contributor Brian Gentile suggested that two vital IT roles have emerged from the big data phenomenon: data scientists and data explorers. Scientists are crucial for addressing the three characteristics of big data, which are velocity, variety and volume. These employees are critical for their data mining, information management and modeling skills.

The data explorer includes a much broader skills set, according to Gentile. These staff members have an analytics background that helps improve a company’s decision-making capabilities.

Although these workers are crucial in many respects, companies may experience some serious skills gaps regarding these professionals. Gentile explained that more colleges and universities need to offer analytics courses or classes that focus on data-based decision-making to avoid such issues moving forward.

Big data crucial for decisions
It is clear that big data is not going away anytime soon, placing greater emphasis on how organizations and personnel manage and extract value from this information. A survey conducted by the Economic Intelligence Unit for Alteryx found that nearly 80 percent of employees require access to big data to perform their jobs. However, 45 percent were unable to do so with their last important decision.

Alteryx Senior Vice President of Marketing Rick Schultz explained the significance of big data in terms of identifying valuable information.

“Big data is extremely valuable to companies looking to solve their immediate decision-making challenges,” Schultz said. “Delivering the right data to the right decision-maker in a way they can understand – no matter where that data lives or what form it takes – is crucial, and companies need to make this easier in order to get maximum value from big data.”

Schulz added that more businesses are realizing that big data is more than just velocity and volume. The IT trend offers firms value when analyzed properly.

The importance of big data professionals has never been greater. Some industry experts, including Gartner Research Vice President Hung LeHong, have asserted that companies cannot afford to lose these skilled workers, ITWorldCanada reported.