Review of Data Crush-Sometimes You Can Judge A Book By Its Title

By Cary J. Calderone, Esq.

My quick summary of the book:  Either crush, or be crushed.  The amount of data is growing faster than ever.  Data Crush by Chris Surdak explains why this is happening and provides a roadmap for keeping your business on the right side of the tidal wave of data.   A key observation Surdak shares is that:

The Internet used to be a tool for telling your customers about your business. Now its real value lies in what it tells you about them.

 In other words, you either take advantage of new technology and new data, or, your competitors will, and you may be out of business.  

And The Winner Of The Oscar For Best Prediction Goes To...

2014 © Cary J. Calderone

"I would like to thank the academy and all those who have supported this blog...  [sniffle

sniffle]  Without you this moment would not be possible."   Okay, this blog post has nothing to do with the Academy Awards except that I thought I would take a moment to pat myself on the back, just like Hollywood does for more than 3 1/2 hours (that seems like 8) during the Academy Awards.   In December of 2012 in my year-end post, I boldly predicted that e-discovery tools like Guidance and Autonomy, could be redesigned and/or repackaged for Business Intelligence and Information Governance. (link to the original blog post Forecast-2013)
Recently there has been a new marketing push for many E-Discovery products for "Pro-Active Information Governance."  

Forecast 2013-Is It E-Discovery Or Business Intelligence

© 2012 Cary J. Calderone, Esq

One thing I find baffling about data management is how applications are categorized.  I am not referring to classifications like private versus public cloud, or CRM versus Social.  But rather, the distinction between Business Intelligence and E-Discovery, and Record and Information Management.  BI has been popular and is viewed as a vitamin that can help boost sales and profits.  On the other end of the technology spectrum, we have RIM and E-Discovery.  When it comes to these unloved step-children of the corporate world, companies usually have to be dragged towards making the investment.  These are all pro-active and reactive tools for gleaning knowledge from your data.  But while RIM and E-Discovery are avoided, BI is relatively popular.  And, here is my argument:  Both types of applications are not really that different.  Let me explain.

Cloud Connect 2012-Why I Think The Cloud Will Rule Your Future

by Cary J. Calderone

The keynotes on Tuesday and Wednesday, the official full days of Cloud Connect 2012, were both interesting and entertaining.  My comment from last year still stands.  Short and to the point 15 minute speeches by many industry influencers beats the heck out of one long keynote.   This format means that speakers do not have to worry about filling time for an hour or more.   Instead, they make their most important points fast.    I'll list a few of my favorites later, but to me, the energy and focus of the show lead me to one conclusion.  The Cloud is important because it offers a rare combination of the aspirin and the vitamin in the same pill.   Silicon Valley lives and breaths by startups coming along with aspirin, to solve headaches, and vitamins to boost your revenue.   Cloud solutions offer you both.   At last year's Industry Summit, John Hagel quipped that with all the hype, we were still underestimating the impact of the Cloud.   After this year's show, I think I can fully appreciate his forecast.

Churchill Club-Online Privacy Rules Revisited

by Cary J. Calderone

It has been one year since I covered a terrific Churchill Club event on this subject (Location and Privacy).  I was anxious to see what we have learned and what was new on the subject of online data privacy.   Unfortunately, the short answer is, "not much."  I really enjoy the Churchill Club events, but while this panel had members from various stages across the privacy spectrum, from the ACLU, to private companies like Microsoft (panel information below), it seemed like the discussion covered the same issues, with no new takeaways.   It was the first time I have ever been a little bit disappointed by a Chuchill Club event.   I was expecting a few new best practices for businesses but there really were none.  That said, if this was your first event about online privacy, you would have learned the major issues the government regulators, companies, and consumers, need to consider.

Churchill Club Presents The Big Data Effect

Copyright © 2011  Cary J. Calderone

Is Big Data being over-hyped?  "I certainly hope not" was Ping Li's heartfelt response to moderator Michael Chui's question to the panel (bios below).  Li's firm,  Accel Partners, made a splash in the news recently by announcing the creation of a 100 million dollar fund for investments in Big Data.   The Churchill Club panel members each gave their own interpretations of the Big Data Effect. They emphasized that Big Data was not just about  the volume of data, but how it could be researched, extracted, and analyzed.

Big Data-Not Just Big Storage Or It May Be A Big Headache

Copyright © 2011 Cary J. Calderone Esq.

Time to give the busy professional's definition of the latest technology buzz phrase, "Big Data."  In brief, it is about being able to process and mine very large amounts of data (even petabytes) for business intelligence.  Big Data indexing and database technologies, like Hadoop and NoSQL allow for distributed processing that previously was impossible with standard table-based relationship databases.  However, too many short-term thinkers will try to implement a Big Data strategy by doing nothing more than keeping everything they can and figuring it out later.  This approach is fraught with Big danger.