big data

Colleges and universities are moving swiftly to create advanced degree programs aimed at helping to fill an exploding need for specialists who can manage and analyze big data.

Just as government IT managers are moving toward cloud computing and mobile technologies, big data initiatives are underway at federal departments and agencies.

At this week's Fall 2012 DEMO conference, big data was in a category by itself - and for good reason.

The high-performance computing (HPC) scientific/academic sector is accustomed to using commodity server and storage clusters to deliver massive processing power, but comparable large-scale cluster deployments are now found in the high-end enterprise as well.

For all the promise of big data, the fundamental challenge with collecting massive volumes of data from different sources is finding new business uses for it, according to several IT managers at Computerworld's BI & Analytics Perspectives event held this week.

Big data holds much promise for organizations seeking ways to improve business processes. Before reaching that point, though, you need to know what data you'll need, how you'll get it, how you'll use it and what you expect to learn from it. Learn how to start answering those questions here.

Make no mistake, your personal data isn't your own. When you update your Facebook page, "Like" something on a website, apply for a credit card, click on an ad, listen to an MP3, or comment on a YouTube video, you are feeding a huge and growing beast with an insatiable appetite for your personal data, a beast that always craves more. Virtually every piece of personal information that you provide online (and much that you provide offline) will end up being bought and sold, segmented, packaged, analyzed, repackaged, and sold again.

Enterprise IT departments are struggling to take advantage of the benefits big data can bring due to a lack of skills in the marketplace, according to IDC research VP Susan Feldman.