{"id":16112,"date":"2014-03-06T14:40:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T22:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devwww.3cloudsolutions.com\/post\/take-big-data-one-step-at-a-timebut-keep-stepping-2\/"},"modified":"2024-06-18T09:09:51","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T16:09:51","slug":"take-big-data-one-step-at-a-timebut-keep-stepping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/resources\/take-big-data-one-step-at-a-timebut-keep-stepping\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Big Data One Step at a Time\u2026but Keep Stepping!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Recently, during a presentation on a completely different\"shutterstock
\ntopic, I saw this Chinese proverb, \u201cTo get through the hardest journey we need take only one<\/em>
\nstep at a time, but we must keep on stepping.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It struck me for a couple of reasons, but it especially resonated with regard to discussions I often have with customers. It harkens back to my early days working with customers on Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse solutions. They had tons of reporting needs, their users were asking more and more complex questions, they knew they needed a solution, but they didn\u2019t know where to start and it seemed like just a huge obstacle to overcome. Sound familiar?<\/p>\n

There is so much hype in the news these days about \u201cbig data\u201d. Every CIO and DWBI manager I meet is talking about it and very often the conversation comes down to, \u201cI don\u2019t really understand what this big data thing is, but I know I need some.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is virtually the same conversation we were having with customers five and 10 years ago about data warehouse and BI. They\u2019d heard they needed these things, but weren\u2019t really sure why. The ability to show them why it was an important addition to the way they did business is why we were successful. Another significant reason has been our approach\u2026\u201dthink big, but start small.\u201d One of the biggest reasons DWBI projects have failed in the past is because organizations try to tackle too much at once and by the time they get any real value delivered to the business, the business has moved on. We have been coaching our customers to \u201cthink big and start small\u201d for years\u2026envision the end-state (or at least a state a year or two out) but start delivering value immediately. The proverb above really says the same thing with the addition of the phrase \u201ckeep on stepping\u201d. Don\u2019t stop when \u201cit\u2019s good enough\u201d and lose sight of that big vision you had at the outset.<\/p>\n

So what does this have to do with big data? Big data is a big topic. There are so many buzzwords (with new ones every day) that it\u2019s impossible to keep up. I was having a conversation with a colleague the other day and we were throwing around terms and technologies and were confusing each other. If we\u2019re confused, and we\u2019re both engineers engaged in designing and selling solutions, what are our customers thinking?!<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re thinking about a big data solution, you\u2019re probably at one of three stages:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You\u2019ve been hearing the hype, you don\u2019t really know what it means, but your business customers are asking for it.<\/li>\n
  2. You\u2019ve been exploring options, reading about technologies and are getting overwhelmed with the amount of information and technologies available.<\/li>\n
  3. You\u2019re already chosen a technology and are trying to build solutions, but are finding it difficult with a steep learning curve.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    My advice to you at any of these stages is\u2026\u201dthink big, start small and don\u2019t lose sight of the goal\u201d. Big data projects benefit from this approach as much as any project we\u2019ve ever done. Find a small use case within your organization and use it to kick the tires. There are some easy ways to do this.<\/p>\n

    –\u00a0Do you have a traditional data warehouse that is growing rapidly and you want try out a more scalable solution? Or, are you thinking about a data warehouse, but don\u2019t really know where to start? Have you thought about the cloud? Sign up for a Windows Azure<\/a> trial account and stand up a Fast Track Data Warehouse<\/a> environment in a few minutes.<\/p>\n

    –\u00a0Interested in Hadoop? You can stand up a HDInsight<\/a>\u00a0Hadoop cluster on Windows Azure or download the Hortonworks Sandbox<\/a>\u00a0and get a Hadoop environment running on a local virtual machine. Both of these options come with demos and tutorials to get you started.<\/p>\n

    The advantage of these approaches is that you can get started for very little or no cost. It\u2019s a great way to get started in order to plan a path to your first real solution and once you have a vision of what\u2019s possible, you\u2019re in a better position to request funding and have an ROI
    \ndiscussion. Once you get that first project under your belt, you can continue to follow your roadmap with small steps and continue to drive business value.<\/p>\n

    Break the long journey into smaller steps and you\u2019ll reach the end refreshed with a great feeling of satisfaction\u2026just remember to keep stepping!<\/p>\n

    If you have interest in data warehouse and big data solutions, contact 3Cloud<\/a>\u00a0for a discovery call.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Big Data can be a daunting subject. Break it down into smaller steps and you\\’ll reach the end with satisfying results and less stress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":15025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[260,297],"tags":[333,343,304],"class_list":["post-16112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data-ai","category-data-platform","tag-big-data","tag-hdinsight","tag-modern-data-platform","topics-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3cloudsolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}