The value of big data is bigger than the size of the data or the speed of the analytics.
The truth is, while it’s interesting to talk about petabytes of data and sub-second analytic responses, it’s all meaningless if you don’t trust the results. The real payoff of big data is getting reliable real-time answers.
Many companies today have legacy data reporting systems that they use to help make decisions but wouldn’t trust entirely as the basis of those decisions. It may be that their data is siloed throughout different organizations, and so they realize that they’re only getting a part of the bigger picture. Or it may be that their data is “polluted” by outdated entries, duplicate records and errors. For these companies, accelerating the delivery of unreliable reports is unlikely to be much of a carrot when considering a big data solution.
Yet it may be that a company has trustworthy data which takes weeks to analyze, package and distribute to decisions makers. For them, big data technology can be a game changer. What would be possible, for example, if that company had those insights after three days rather than three weeks? What about three hours? Three minutes? In such a case, big data technology can have a profound effect on how businesses respond to changing conditions and new opportunities.
If reliable data is a fundamental requirement to realizing the benefits of big data, how do businesses create that data foundation? It begins by loading data from across the business—such as data marts, ERP systems and semi-structured data from online sources—and combining it into a single big data environment.
SAP HANA is especially well suited to the task of integrating data, because it allows data of nearly all types to be unified and stored on what is essentially a giant analytics server which can be accessed by anyone in the business.
Beyond the SAP HANA platform itself, businesses can also accelerate the value of their big data solution by transforming data into information. Developing the right analytics architecture can allow end users to discover new insights. Executives want those insights to be delivered in an easy-to-use, easy-to-interpret application on tablets and mobile devices.
AdvizeX has deployed SAP HANA solutions for many of our customers. We’ve integrated legacy databases into SAP HANA environments, deployed SAP HANA appliances, and integrated line-of-business and analytical applications with SAP HANA solutions to unify real-time intelligence across business groups. And we can tell you from experience that big data isn’t big enough to cover up bad data. If you want fast results, big data alone can do that. But if you want fast results you can trust, look to big data and SAP HANA strategy from AdvizeX. ▪