Future Trends in Big Data

As you have read our blogs throughout this semester, you have learned that Big Data is becoming a top priority to enterprises small and large.  With machine learning continuing to advance, it will only become easier to obtain highly accurate predictive patterns and anomalies, which will help companies achieve higher operational efficiency and effectiveness.After doing research on the future tends of Big Data, I have found that many companies will use cloud services to apply Big Data, personalization will become personal through the use of big data, and that more security will be in place to protect the privacy of consumers and organizations.

  

According to Smart Data Collective, we will see more and more companies move to a Big-Data-as-a-Service solution which will help enterprises apply Big Data without the heavy costs involved.  If a company were to use Bid-Data-as-a-Service, you would be using an outside source that helps organizations understand insights from large information sets.  This is extremely helpful to small or medium sized organizations that would like to take advantage of their Big Data, but do not have the capacity or funds to do so.  IIA calls this adoption “ready-made analytics in the cloud”.  Smart Data Collective predicts that 2014 will be a turning point in the acceptance of the cloud as part of a Big Data strategy.

As each consumer clicks, likes, tweets, calls, purchases, or uses self-tracking applications, tremendous amounts of data are being created.  So, why have all companies not used this data to create a personal online shopping experience that personalizes what it thinks each consumer will be interested in?  Well, according to Smart Data Collective, 2014 will be the year that enterprises will see how valuable the personalized approach can be.  Personalized discounts could be used by the organizations to sway the consumers to cooperate and share their data.  It is a win/win for both the consumer and organization, as far as the buying experience goes.

Amazon was one of the first to use personalization, and have had much success.  Amazon uses Big Data to create a personal online shopping experience with recommendations, personal homepages, personal discounts, or personally targeted mass-email campaigns.  Shoes of Prey, another company using personalization, uses Big Data to look at how much each customer spends and how profitable they are.  With this information, the organization can upsell based on the tastes of its consumers.

As of right now, NSA document have shown, that many governments across the world have access to data from a large amount of organizations and consumers.  Here recently, enterprises have sent high-ranking employees to try and win the right to privacy for their consumers.  It will be a focus for most companies in the future to increase security measures so that their client’s information is not as easily accessible.

Big Data is the way of the future.  As time goes on, companies will become more and more dependent on the analytics-derived insights which are key to business operations; diminishing the need of intuitive decision making in enterprises.  How do you think Big Data will impact future business decisions?

http://www.cio.com/slideshow/detail/111961
http://smartdatacollective.com/bigdatastartups/174741/seven-big-data-trends-2014

The Connected Home

Do you remember the Disney movie Smart House? It was about a father, son, and daughter that won a house that was fully automated. The computer system that made the house "smart" was able to prepare meals, set appointments and reminders, and anything you could imagine with just the simple command of a voice. While not to this extreme the market for the "Smart House" concept is becoming larger especially in luxury homes. Since society is so technologically advanced why not use it to manage our daily  lives? 

The connected home by a loose definition is a house wired to receive and distribute throughout the house a variety of music, video and data signals. It also is equipped to connect to services outside the home. For example, Sonos allows you to play different music in different parts of your home through their system. The connected home is a way to monitor the activity of your home and your personal behavior all through a network of connected devices.  

iControl is the company that powers connected home solutions through many leading security and service providers worldwide.CPI and ADT are two of the most common which allow you to monitor the activity of your house through a mobile app. Time Warner has also got in the market with their Intelligent Home system which allows you to arm and disarm your alarm, adjust the temperature and lights, or turn on and off your appliances from anywhere. All of these systems are continually sending data to you to let you know what kind of activity is going on. iControl provides these companies with the technology to offer us the ability to do this. 

The future of the connected home is more likely to engage all aspects of your life. Could you imagine stepping into your bathroom and a scale generating data about your health? This could help with your health in hopes that it would motivate you to live a healthy lifestyle. It could detect dramatic weight change in a short period and suggest that you might have a serious medical issue.  The data could then be passed along to your healthcare provider who would call you to check-up on you. iControl on wearables, such as watches, would allow you to adjust different aspects of your house while out exercising or whatever activity you might be doing. Have you ever poured a bowl and cereal and realized there was no milk? That problem could be fixed with a fridge that keeps inventory of what is in it and sends you a list of things that need to be replenished. 

Privacy is the one thing that stands in the way of a fully connected home because of the accumulation of personal data that it has the potential to collect. There are many aspects of your life that everybody does not need to know such as your health records or your daily routines. Even though iControl does not own or share the data they still analyze it to help  them enhance their solutions. These systems can be hacked and then all your personal data is out there for someone to use for who knows what.