Analytics present a significant opportunity for companies who want to make both strategic and tactical decisions based on the latest and broadest set of information. But volume, velocity, and variety of data (3 v’s used with a shout out to Doug Laney) along with the complexity of analytics, make this an almost insurmountable task. The only way to solve the analytic challenge is to think differently about how to meet the needs of a changing world. It takes innovation to help companies achieve a truly unconstrained analytics program.
The first major breakthrough in computing occurred when smart people turned a calculator into a computing platform that could run different applications. Instead of having everything hard wired into the machine, the compute power was used to run an operating system and soft applications. Software changed the world of computing. The hardware became the platform for unlimited applications.
The second major breakthrough in computing occurred when we realized that much of the data being computed could be broken down into different types and categorized. Instead of everything streaming through the processors unchecked, they created a piece of software that served as a platform for data, a data “base.” The database became the platform for previously unimagined business applications and business intelligence.
The third major breakthrough in computing occurred when Tim Berners Lee, and so many others, pushed the idea that we could separate the application layer from the presentation layer. He pioneered an overly simple presentation layer with graphic freedom never before experienced. That human interface became the platform for widespread access, unlimited content, and unprecedented collaboration.
The next major breakthrough in computing is the analytic revolution. Innovation dictates that by separating analytic workloads companies can analyze massive amounts of detailed data using advanced analytic functions of all kinds. The analytic platform becomes the stage for unconstrained analytics, a place where no analytic application is too difficult and the speed of creating new, intelligent applications quickens remarkably.
Great historical perspective John, and thanks for the shout-out. Here’s a link to the original article I wrote on the 3Vs over 10 years ago: “Three Dimensional Data Management Challenges: Controlling Volume, Velocity and Variety.” https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D354224_7061872_35276. Others from TDWI to several other analyst orgs to McKinsey to IBM have tweaked and claimed it as their own. LOL.
Hi Doug,
Thanks for the comment and the link to the article. It’s nice to flash back to the days of META. I wonder if its time for an update to discuss how big data adds three new Vs to data management challenges: veracity (is it good data?), vicissitude (handling changes in data), and vicinity (location of the data, where it is, where to store it, where to process it).
Cheers,
John