Written by Glenn Boylan
The September PMI Atlanta Technology Forum featured a fascinating talk about big data by Rich Wise.
Steve Kruger welcomed everyone and thanked our hosts, Hewlett-Packard. Excellent food this month. This month’s announcements included the fact that HP has a job opening for a Technical Accounts Manager, and that the chapter can always use additional volunteer help. (Speaking of which, don’t forget that being a speaker at one of the Forums will get you three PDUs towards your PMP!)
The chapter has many events coming up – lunches, dinners, forums, and networking events. The chapter website at pmiatlanta.org has all the details.
Nancy Berlin introduced Mr. Wise. Rich, who is a Software Architect and Professional Services IT consultant, has over 25 years of experience in the Information Technology industry. The title of his talk was "Why Big Data ... How We Got Here".
Rich captured everyone’s attention right at the start when he explained the incredible increase in data generation using just two examples. His first example was the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tracking tags many companies use for tracking shipments and inventories. Each one of those tags generates data, and in the six years from 2005 to 2011, the number of those tags in use has gone from the millions to the billions.
Mr. Wise’s second example was the latest Airbus jet, a frequent choice for cross-country travel. Each one of those airliners uses over one billion lines of code. And each individual engine creates 10 terabytes of information every 30 minutes while in flight.
Just these two examples gave the audience a good idea of the magnitude of data being generated every hour of every day. Add to that social media (tens of terabytes per day per media outlet), the Internet, internal company data, and it’s easy to see why big data people are already using the term “petabyte”, which is 1,000 terabytes.
Rich went on to explain the opportunity – and challenges – big data presents. These vast amounts of data cannot be stored and analyzed at a later time. They must be filtered and analyzed in real time, as they are created. The challenge is due to the volume, variety, and velocity of the data. This makes it more difficult to determine the veracity of the data (the level of trust that can put in it).
The value of big data is in understanding and being able to monetize the information – and the relationships that information represents. Retail, health care, science, and financial services are just some of the industries trying to take advantage of it. The conundrum facing big data is there is way more information available than can be processed. Producing data is much easier than making sense of it.
Mr. Wise’s presentation gave an excellent overview of the possibilities and the difficulties presented by big data. Clearly it’s an invaluable tool for organizations that can get a handle on it.
The next Technology Forum will be on Tuesday, October 28, at Hewlett-Packard’s Alpharetta office. The keynote presentation will be "Leading & Facilitating Inclusion with A Remote Team" by Cori L. Lawton, RHIA, PMP. Check the PMI Atlanta web site for details. We hope to see you there.