New InformationWeek Resource Helps Technology Professionals Harness Opportunities Around Big Data

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Business technology professionals looking to unlock the tremendous business value that big data provides have a new resource:  InformationWeek's Big Data, Big Decisions. 

Enterprises are grappling with the challenge of how to manage and leverage vast amounts of data from an ever-expanding array of sources, including mobile customers, location-aware applications, sensors and social media. Big data promises to improve the operational efficiency by as much as 26%, according to a recent report from Capgemini North America. Gleaning big insights from big data is a big business opportunity. 

InformationWeek's Big Data, Big Decisions examines the opportunities and technology choices companies have when it comes to analyzing, visualizing and extracting value from massive, sometimes unstructured data sets – often in real time.

"Big data isn't just about the digital-marketing challenges you so often hear about – we'll look at data volume, velocity, variety and complexity challenges in a range of industries, including manufacturing, health care, lending, insurance and government," said Rob Preston, InformationWeek's Editor In Chief. 

Editorial coverage includes:

• How the use of big data is changing analytical methods
  • High-powered in-memory approaches that are speeding data analysis
  • Fast-growing science of machine learning, wherein analysts are using the data itself, rather than analyst hunches, to uncover breakthrough discoveries and insights
  • Cloud-delivered analytic services that promise to close the talent gap that threatens to make big data analysis an expensive proposition

• Software and hardware platforms for big data
  • Which technologies and infrastructure choices for big data are gaining adoption and why
  • Evolution of relational databases and the revolution in NoSQL platforms

Preston added, "The challenge of big data is real, but many organizations don't differentiate big data from traditional data.  Recent InformationWeek Reports research showed that 90% of respondents use conventional databases as the primary means of handling data. We'll help technologists understand what constitutes big data (it's not just size), and the numerous management challenges it poses."

Paul Travis was named Editor of InformationWeek's Big Data, Big Decisions special editorial series. Additional contributors include: Doug Henschen, Art Wittmann, Rob Preston, Fritz Nelson, Jeff Bertolucci, Kevin Fogarty and Nicole Lewis.

Access InformationWeek's Big Data, Big Decisions at www.InformationWeek.com/big-data.  The editorial series is currently sponsored by SAS.

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