How the IoT Will Reshape Big Data Analytics

It won’t be long before the amount of data produced by machines surpasses the amount of data produced by all humankind combined. That’s a lot of data!

Most of this will be streaming in from the IoT, or Internet of Things, which has either gone mainstream or is on the very verge of doing so. Yet only about 8 percent of enterprises have monetized their IoT data streams, and even there, they are only monetizing about 25 percent of what is available. That is expected to change, and soon. Within a couple of years, half of all enterprises will have monetized their IoT data. Here’s how that will change data analytics as it’s always been known.

The IoT Will Change the Field of Data Analytics

The IoT will soon generate more data than all of humanity combined.

Big data analytics will no longer be a specialty field. Soon data analytics will be a core competency, expected of all IT workers, and expected to be understood by all executives and managers. Data won’t be relegated to a team or department; it will be enterprise wide and well utilized across the organization. Expect colleges, universities, and trade schools to ramp up programs to train students in data management, government, analytics, and related sciences.

The IoT Will Change Data Storage Infrastructure

The EDW, or enterprise data warehouse, will gradually give way to more effective means of storing and processing the vast quantities and varied formats associated with the IoT. NoSQL databases will replace the traditional SQL infrastructures, and data warehouses will step aside to make room for data lakes, where data doesn’t have to be formatted or structured to be stored, tagged, accessed, and used by applications.

The IoT Will Challenge Data Quality

If you manage data streaming in from a single device, you know about noise, redundancies, and other data quality issues. Multiply this by many millions of times, and you’ll begin to see the scope of managing data quality for the IoT. Data quality is essential for gleaning useful analysis. While many third-party providers already offer data scrubbing and data cleansing products and services, expect data quality to expand and become a regular part of the everyday activities of database administrators and other IT and big data pros.

The IoT Will Change the Businesses That Use It

Inevitably, no industry will be left untouched by big data and the IoT.

What is already obvious is how big data changes the industries and organizations that use it. The IoT merely adds to the streams, types, and usefulness of big data. For example, an oil rig produces about eight terabytes of data per day, which is revolutionizing the way the oil industry is producing oil and maintaining their equipment. Data is radically changing insurance, sales and marketing, retail, healthcare, and virtually every other industry on the planet.

Not all IoT data is important or useful for analysis, however. Those responsible for managing the data will be challenged to determine what data has an immediate usefulness, what should be stored for long-term analysis, and what data can be tossed to make room for more practical information.

Big data has grown up, and the IoT is soon to follow. To keep up with the rapidly changing world of big data analytics and the IoT, sign up for our newsletter at top of page.