Funny (and brilliant) insight into what Big Data really is...

First, before anyone thinks of getting mad at me, I did not come up with this slide. The credit goes to Duke University Professor Dan Ariely and I strongly agree with him. To analyze his statement: 

\nEveryone talks about it may be an understatement.  The term IoT in itself is becoming quite ubiquitous, but it pales when compared to Big Data.  It is talked about by governments (who plan on using it to provide data on pretty much every area that they are involved in), retailers (to get to know their clients), Utility companies (think Smart Grid / Demand response) and most IT/Marketing teams.

Nobody really knows how to do it may not be totally accurate, but it is pretty close.  There are some great solutions today, but I think there is a serious lack of end to end solutions that allow businesses to do what they need to do in order to fully benefit from all of this data.  There is a lack of standardizations, common protocols, interoperability between platforms and too much focus on too few (the biggest, mostly) clients.

Everyone thinks everyone else is doing it is the most dead-on part of this slide.  Even though they have not figured it out themselves, everyone assumes that their competitors have.  And, I don't just mean vendors in this space, I mean customers.  Every retailer "over-assumes" how well their competitors are doing, as well as pretty much every client I ever speak to in pretty much every sector.  Some clients have some good initial installs, but just about every company can do a better job.

Everyone claims that they are doing it reminds me of just about every aspect of high school, actually and it appears that this mentality hasn't dissipated by the time that most executives reach middle age.  No company wants to admit that they are not up on the latest trends, especially one that has such a huge following / potential impact on how your business is run.

The Bottom Line

Thanks, Professor, this one made me laugh.  It was a laugh that I did because it both accurately states where we are as an industry while also highlighting our excitement to be in this space....with this much money to be made, won't it be fun to be part of this industry when we "graduate to college".

Note:  I have to think that this would be clear without having to write this, but better to be safe than sorry when one talks about teenage sex (not sure if that is a pun)....this article in no way encourages any promiscuous behaviour among those who are not yet old enough to vote.