http://onforb.es/1tePMrD

TECH 11/24/2014 @ 11:06AM 11,438 views

A Match Made Somewhere: BigData and the Internet of Things

Comment Now

Its become clear in the past few years that few technologies live in a vacuum.

Theyre more likely to be connected or related and sharing data, which is why

its always better to think of the enterprise holistically rather than in silos.

(Imagine how much more efficiently the federal government would run if it

stored one record of each citizen, rather than one at the Internal Revenue

Service, another at the Social Security Administration, another at the

Transportation Security Administration, and so on.)

Thats also why youre hearing the term SMAC bandied about more recently.

Thats the amalgam of social, mobile, analytics, and cloud, because the four

work better together than individually.

Similarly, the close sibling of analytics, big data, also feeds off the Internet of

Things. Admittedly, I think were much further along with big data than we

are with the Internet of Things, especially since, as Forbes contributor Gil

Press noted wryly earlier this year, the Internet of Things has surpassed big

data on the Gartner hype curve.

But once the Internet of Things gets rolling, stand back. Were going to have

data spewing at us from all directions from appliances, from machinery,

from train tracks, from shipping containers, from power stations. I loved the

infographic on the Big Data Startup site about all the ways well come to

collect sensor data. If that doesnt get you thinking about how to handle

real-time data feeds, nothing will. But heres a suggestion: start now.

You may still have time. GigaOms Derrick Harris noted last week that the

Internet of Things isnt producing a data deluge yet. But the analytics

challenge is nonetheless looming. As Harris rightfully says, after citing

Ciscos prediction of 21 billion connected devices by 2018, the companies

that will be storing all that device data are less concerned [about] sheer

volume and more concerned about making it usable.

Some companies are already starting. As Drew Robb noted in his Enterprise

Apps Today article last week, How IoT Will Change Big Data Analytics, Duke

Howard Baldwin Contributor

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

A Match Made Somewhere: Big Data and the Internet of Things - Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/howardbaldwin/2014/11/24/a-match-made-...

1 of 2 5/1/2015 1:39 PM

This article is available online at: http://onforb.es/1tePMrD 2015 Forbes.com LLC All Rights Reserved

Energys Emerging Technology office is thinking about how to take advantage

of communication from buildings, vehicles, people, power plants, and smart

meters.

As one of Robbs sources noted, Every enterprise needs to factor in how the

Internet of Things is going to affect them and their business, and must

respond by establishing the right infrastructure to support this level of Big

Data and analytics. If they dont, they will fall behind.

On the other hand, there are others who arent responding with any urgency.

According to Jeff Bertoluccis news report in InformationWeek last week, the

Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) released a survey

showing that while a shade over half of respondents believe Internet of

Things opportunities justify the hoopla, an almost exact percentage, 48%,

see more hype than substance.

Bertolucci suggests, quite accurately, that IT executives may be hesitating

because of a lack of standards and the potential inability of sensors to share

data. But as a CompTIA executive notes also accurately that this little

thing called the Internet required certain protocols to become commonly

used before we started deriving full benefit from it.

But no matter when you start today, tomorrow, this weekend, not later

remember this sound advice from a Booz Allen consultant, quoted by ZDNets

Larry Dignan last week. Machines do analytics; humans do analysis.

Dignan added, Computers are good at detail and examining the past, but

real data science requires imagination and cognitive ability.

The moral of the story: you can have all the sensors in the world, but youre

still going to need someone to figure out what theyre telling you.

A Match Made Somewhere: Big Data and the Internet of Things - Forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/howardbaldwin/2014/11/24/a-match-made-...

2 of 2 5/1/2015 1:39 PM