Gil Allouche

Technology is getting faster and smarter. Computers are now able to recognize and learn patterns, and make decisions in real-time. Their improved analytic and decision-making abilities allow them to outperform humans in areas such as medical diagnoses, legal recognition and customized marketing campaigns.

Every day customers generate massive amounts of data through POS transactions, social media interactions, mobile devices and more. Much of this data is filled with valuable insights retailers can use to compete in crowded markets and boost the bottom line---but how to go about it?

We are a now generation. We don’t like waiting for anything, whether it’s our microwave dinner to finish, the red light to change, or our YouTube videos to buffer. Not surprisingly, this impatience translates easily from our personal lives right into our professional lives. What’s true at home is just as common in the office. For example, with smartphones and cloud computing, we expect to be able to communicate with anyone and access information from anywhere. Technology has increased our collaborative abilities, leading to quicker turnaround times, shorter deadlines and heightened expectations.

The world of e-commerce is tough, and it’s only going to get tougher as more and more companies shift away from traditional brick and mortar stores and go with online enterprises. Because of the increase in competition and products offered, it’s more important than ever that companies get their marketing strategies right. And in a world filled with so much noise from email, social media, apps and the like, that too is getting more and more difficult. Not only is it harder than ever to get a customer's attention, but it’s also harder than ever to keep them coming back to your site/store. With big data technology and programs like Hadoop Hive, however, it’s becoming much easier.

The implementation of big data has proven to increase a company’s ROI by as much as ten to 20 percent depending on the metrics used. Productivity can also increase by five percent and lead to six percent higher profits than other competitors. Enterprises not using big data in their operations are missing out on the benefits that come from increased data gathering and analytics.

Why marketing teams have not become data-driven

In today’s digital world big data almost sounds like an over prescribed medication. A company has revenue struggles? Use big data. Another needs more marketing ROI? Big data. But really, we have only scratched the surface of utilizing big data to its full, practical potential. Big data is a metaphorical iceberg, with the portion above water being structured data and the massive portion below the surface being unstructured data. The challenge for companies today is tackling unstructured data to unlock the full potential of big data computing and analytics.

When people think of big data, they naturally assume that it’s just about gathering large amounts of information to provide more accurate searches online and help companies provide more targeted advertisements and marketing efforts. They’re both right and wrong. True, there is so much more to big data than just marketing and advertising. It’s effects are now being seen in numerous industries across the globe. It’s solving world problems and improving the quality of life for millions of individuals.

Cloud computing, on a personal or business level, hasn’t been around for long. 2010 and 2011 were banner years for the implementation of cloud. There was some movement in the industry before that, but 2010 and especially 2011 were when things really started to take off.

Companies from the cosmetics industry to pet food are finding better ways to interact with customers, improve services and identify new markets through the capabilities they gain from using big data technology, like Google Compute Engine. Google Compute Engine allows companies to run extremely large workloads in the cloud, making big data more affordable and efficient to use than ever before. With this type of technology, companies are able to gather and store more data and, more importantly, they can take that data and perform dynamic queries and analyses that yield real-time results.

There has been a lot of talk about big data recently, especially big data in the cloud. Often times both of these points — big data and cloud computing — are confusing to people. Fortunately, while they might be confusing elements to them, the essence of each of them is very simple, and when put together they form a very powerful combination. Cloud computing is the future, both for individuals and businesses. That being said, there’s a lot of confusion about how cloud computing works and what it can do for businesses and if it’s really safe or not.