Another interesting bda from Whitehall Media. Lots of detailed information but a couple of overall observations:

Whilst it has been going on for a while it is significant how many companies formally associated mostly with hardware are moving into software and consulting: both Dell and HP talked about their big data achievements with almost no mention of the hardware. I think this is further evidence of how commoditised hardware and system software is becoming, probably being driven by cloud offerings. The real value to be gained from IT is shifting from being able to master the Technology to fully exploiting the Information.

In listening to talks about how to make big data succeed a couple of words jumped out at me: curiosity and discovery. A number of speakers talked about the need to find the right people from within your organisation who can form a team to drive the initiative and that no single person is going to be the key. They will need to have a combination of technical skill, domain knowledge and vision and be allowed to explore without fear of being labelled a failure because, even if analysis of some data does not give you actionable insights, you now know more about that data.

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