While there has been much buzz and excitement around the concept of Big Data in recent years, I myself have always had certain reservations about it. Not one of my clients works in Big Data or has even expressed interest in it. My clients read structured data from well-established ERP vendor systems, occassionally stepping out of that zone when necessary. While I hear a lot about Hadoop, I don’t know anyone using it. Surely I am not the only one out there.
But Big Data takes a certain leap in logic, in scope, in imagination. I recently learned of a two day course offered by MIT that seeks to explain Big Data to corporate executives and business intelligence professionals alike. The very first thing it says on its website is that business people need to learn to look beyond their finance systems. Finance systems tell you what happened. Big Data can tell you what is happening out there now.
So there is certainly big potential in Big Data. It has the possibility of remaking the BI world as we know it. The MIT course, at $2,900 (tuition only), is not cheap but might help you get there a few steps ahead than everyone else.
