The Burgeoning Data Marketplace

Jan 10, 2013 by Phil Simon

I’ve been working with enterprise data for nearly half my life. Over the last four months, I’ve been finishing the manuscript of my fifth book, Too Big to Ignore: The Business Case for Big Data (John Wiley & Sons, March 2013). It’s funny how the human brain works – or at least my brain. Once I’m aware of a trend, it seems to pop up everywhere, and Big Data is no exception.

What Does the Future of Big Data Have in Store?

Dec 20, 2012 by Phil Simon

Where do we store all of this data?

It’s a question that many CIOs are asking themselves these days. Relational databases just aren’t built to store petabytes of unstructured data. Today, the usual suspects include Hadoop and columnar, NoSQL and NewSQL databases. Yes, data storage costs have plummeted over the last fifteen years, but do we really need to store historical information?

Hadoop and the Great Sears’ Big Data Experiment

Nov 22, 2012 by Phil Simon

Fifty years ago, Sears Roebuck was the Amazon of today. For a wide variety of reasons, though, it has lost considerable ground to big-box retailers like Target and Wal-Mart, not to mention online behemoths. Now owned by Kmart, Sears is struggling to survive. In this post, I ask the question: Is Big Data the answer to Sears’ problems?

Self-Quantification

Aug 16, 2012 by Phil Simon

A frequent topic of this blog these days is data tracking. Companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook,  Google, and others are able to extensively log what we’re doing online so they can predict what we will do (or, perhaps more accurately, what we might buy.)

Facebook, User Trust and Effective Data Management

Aug 02, 2012 by Phil Simon

In my latest book, I write extensively about Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google (a.k.a., the Gang of Four). It turns out that these companies share many common characteristics, not the least of which is their use of the platform as a business model.

On Uncertainty and Data Minimalism

May 10, 2012 by Phil Simon

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (March 27, 1886 – August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect. Among the famous quotes attributed to him is “less is more.” In other words, blame minimalism at least partially on him.

Now, for your data-overwhelmed folks, I understand the desire for…

Dator on Breaking Bad, Matching, and Amazon.com

Mar 15, 2012 by Phil Simon

Greetings Earthlings:

I’ve been on your planet for a while now and I’m completely befuddled. I’ve bought products from many companies over your Internet, including the first season of the show Breaking Bad largely because Phil Simon won’t shut up about it.

Amazon’s Big Data Ecosystem

Jan 19, 2012 by Phil Simon

I’ve written before on this site about how Amazon.com keeps impeccable data on its customers. Today, I’d like to discuss how one of the company’s products – Amazon Web Services (AWS) – allows companies to do truly remarkable things with extremely large data sets. (Of course, tools like Hadoop also facilitate the analysis of Big Data).

The Gang of Four and the Data Chasm

Nov 10, 2011 by Phil Simon

Mashable recently ran a piece entitled “Why No One Company Will Ever Monopolize the Internet.” In it, Jonathan Rick writes:

The pace and power of web-fueled innovation is stunning. One day we’re swearing by Outlook, the next we can’t live without Gmail. These changes exemplify the beauty of the Internet – the possibility that greener pastures are but a click away.