Where is the center of big data?
The New York Times today profiled Cisco CEO John Chambers' new strategy for big data and in the process, put a fine point on the most important question for the big data market, one being answered with four different approaches by some of the biggest names in networking and computing: "The question could ultimately be whether the center of the system is in the data, as EMC thinks, or in H.P.'s servers, IBM's software, or Cisco's network."
Big data doesn't kill markets
High-frequency trading on Wall Street has already sparked one serious market crash--the "flash crash" in May of 2010 in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped like Newton's apple--and one wake-up call called the "hash crash" in which an unsubstantiated (and untrue) Tweet about a terror attack sent the market tumbling temporarily.
Can big data help rewrite evolutionary history?
Michael F. Whiting, program director of systematics and biodiversity science at the National Science Foundation, said this week in Futurity that scientists are grappling with how to best to detect the signature of evolutionary history from a deluge of genetic data and resolve conflicts between studies that show different lineages for certain organisms.
SAP Ventures grows investment in Alteryx
Alteryx has raised another $12 million in funding from existing investors SAP Ventures and Toba Capital, bringing its total funding to $18 million.
Today's score: velocity 2, volume 0
There seems to be no end to the ways people can position big data with either praise as the next high-tech savior or derision as the latest scam. Those who position the technology as a scam or get hung up on nomenclatures should get over themselves and go find some other itch to scratch, but meaningful debate about the best approaches to big data are helpful and should be encouraged.
Spotlight: Tableau's IPO raises $254 million
Tableau Software's IPO last week was a great sign for the company, as well as for the enterprise data market in which it operates.
Hadoop appears to be everywhere lately, except in big data
Hadoop, the database everyone associates with big data, has had a run of more traditional deployment lately, which is good for Hadoop, but also still good for those looking for more proof of its ability to scale.
GraphLab raises $6.75M to bolster 'Hadoop for graphs'
Founder and data scientist Carlos Guestrin started the GraphLab open source project five years ago. He said recently that data has the ability to make our lives better--whether applied to public health, economics or by suggesting the perfect song. Graphs, he said, help people think in a new way and see things differently.
New Google+ photo allowance will make big data even bigger
Google is betting the way to users' hearts is through their photos.
Spotlight: Customer experience company merges with Shopalize
[24]7, announced this week its acquisition of Shopalize, a social commerce platform specializing in social sharing and social referral solutions.
Big data pays attention to detail in manufacturing
Software has done a great job automating processes and protecting quality, but big data is helping manufacturers measure their productivity over time and determine the best settings and methods for systems in their plants.
Will open models, standards be forever at odds?
Even the White House has its policies around "open data standards," and has developed a set of guiding principles around implementation. But these so-called standards are not in any way a set of specifications for the industry.
Big data community can't hide from premature elections
But we do have data, lots and lots of data. And campaigns have money, lots and lots of money. The two are joining forces and will be a focal point for the next presidential campaign, which is already underway.
Social media giants make their big data moves
By using tools, languages, and libraries normally used for designing single-machine applications across multiple machines, Ubalo was able to reduce image processing tasks from eight hours to five minutes.
American Express wants you to trust online reviews
While credit card companies and retailers team to sift through every morsel of data they have about their customers, one positive by-product of this exercise for consumers is coming from American Express.
MasterCard hopes to push analytics from free data to small businesses
It is good to see a Fortune 500 company such as MasterCard concerned with the competitive capabilities of small businesses and pushing for their ability to leverage big data analytics like it does.
Dreaming of atomic-level big data
Big data analytics and the collection of data don't require atomic-scale storage and processing yet, but if the current pace of networked data growth continues, it will soon. And IBM can't do it alone.
Wildlife dealing with downside of wind power
Now big data is being leveraged to improve the lot of endangered wildlife that encounter turbines in their local habitats.
Spotlight: Reinventing mentoring
It is arguable how successful dating services have been or ever will be considering the difficulty humans have in cultivating and maintaining relationships, especially romantic relationships. But one million dollars is saying a company called Everwise might have better luck using big data to help build mentoring relationships.
Adding more Vs to the big data definition
With so many varieties of data and variables to consider in building an effective predictive model, the first task should be to assess the viability of that data and confirm a particular variable's relevance before going further.
