Big Data and Cloud in decision-making
July 25, 2014
IBA GroupAleš Hojka, CEO of IBA CZVitězslav Košina, Business Consultant at IBA CZIt is a reality today that organizations have to deal with a multitude of unstructured documents and other data. These data have true value, if they are properly and timely processed and extracted, and also are supplied with really useful links.Almost any business has in some way implemented a data management system (DMS), a content management system (CMS) or a business intelligence (BI) solution. Unfortunately, a new system often provides a very low added value, especially when a large amount of data is involved. Getting reasonable output from unstructured data is problematic. Why is it so?DMS, CMS, and BI systems can be really effective, if they meet two essential requirements. The first is a sufficiently flexible environment and quick access to information complemented by strong information security. A really flexible environment shoul be able to respond to resource and computing requests in a very short, practically in real time. This can be easily achieved by using a cloud-based solution. As these requests are dynamic and cannot be easily predicted at the time when the system is designed, cloud can be very instrumental. In addition, keeping resources for a «rainy day» is not an effective allocation of resources.Therefore, cloud is a prerequisite for dealing with big data, but it is not the only one. In some cases, data and documents are not available anytime and anywhere without limitations, though we have an environment designed for large amounts of data. This is true.It should be noted that effective decision-making involves an increasingly growing amount of information.As the information should be available on mobile phones and tablets, an information management system cannot transfer huge amounts of data and should have short response time. If we meet these two basic requirements, then we are poised for truly efficient extraction and processing of large amounts of data, which can be further aggregated and analyzed to make a grounded decision, deal, and etc.For many companies, using Software as a Service (SaaS0 is a problem, because they have to do with sensitive commercial information or client data. From the perspective of a cloud-based solution, a dedicated cloud is needed as apposed to shared capacities.Many organizations outsource only the infrastructure, while we recommend to outsource the entire solution. With a cloud solution, the issue of security is solved to the extent that is normal for corporate clients. In this case, only the needed capacity is commissioned andthere is no need to reserve resources for the team that takes care of the infrastructure and applications.The organization can thus focus on business and management objectives, as well as provide added value to the clients.With mobile devices, security is a very thorny issue because attacks on their security are more likely than on the computers that are located in the company’s premises, where they are protected physically. The good news is that these devices are so powerful that allow for implementing the strongest encryption and other elements of modern security.Taking into account the links between documents and their associated metadata, as well as other data sources, cloud computing is the best solution one can choose. It is however possible, if needed, to move from SaaS to the model, in which the solution is managed by the customer and yet not loses the flexibility that cloud offers us in terms of resources. Using cloud is much cheaper than building one‘s own infrastructure. Moreover, it enables organizations to concentrate on their requirements and business needs instead of specific software or infrastructure.