Real Time, Real Insights
Big data analytics are turning into a killer app for the cloud.
The cloud is an ideal vehicle for big data analytics, thanks to its ability to provide large amounts of computing and storage capacity as needed. All types of big data have been considered fair game, with the exception of real-time data. The cost of sending it to and from the cloud and the timeliness of the cloud-based data insights just didn’t add up. Until now. The importance of competitive advantage to cloud deployment decisions was underscored by a recent survey by 451 Research underwritten by Microsoft. More than half of the respondents cited factors relating to improving technology quality, helping grow the business and adding capabilities that couldn’t be built internally as their principal reasons for moving to the cloud.
“You can use real-time data analytics to find out things you never could afford to before,” asserts Brian Hopkins, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.
Minimise the timeframe, maximise the return
For many organisations, a barrier to the cloud and cloud-based projects, like the Internet of Things, is about the perceived investment of time. Making a case for IoT, for example, might seem like a moon-shot when the question involves getting board approval for a project that might take six months, or could take three years.
However, building a predictable timeframe from initial investment to rapid completion makes sense to even the most cautious decision-makers. As an example, here are five key phases in an IoT implementation.
- Business case development
- Build vs. buy and vendor evaluations.
- Proof of concept
- Initial pilot rollout
- Commercial deployment (full scale rollout)
