Leaders and Innovators

Introduction

Data management and analytic practices have changed dramatically since I entered the industry in 1998. Data volumes are exploding beyond imagination, easily in the petabytes. There are many varieties of data that we are collecting, both structured and semi-structured data. We are acquiring data at much higher velocity, demanding daily renewal, sometimes even hourly. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus so wisely stated centuries ago, “The only thing that is constant is change.”

WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK

The management of data, and how we handle and analyze it, has changed dramatically since the start of the “big data” era. Ultimately, all of the data must deliver information for decision making. It is definitely an exciting time that creates many challenges but also great opportunities for all of us to explore and adopt new and disruptive technologies to help with data management and analytical needs. And, now, the journey of this book begins.

I have attended a number of conferences where I have been able to share with both business and IT audiences the technologies that can help them more effectively manage their data, in return creating a more streamlined analytical life cycle. I have learned from customers the challenges they encounter and the fascinating things they are doing with agile analytics to drive innovation and gain competitive advantage for their companies. These are the biggest and most common themes:

• “How can I integrate data management and ...