There are some things that are so big that they have implications for everyone, whether we want them to or not. Big Data is one of those concepts, and is completely transforming the way we do business and is impacting most other parts of our lives.

It’s such an important idea that everyone from your grandma to your CEO needs to have a basic understanding of what it is and why it’s important.…

It’s hard to think of a more worthwhile use for big data than saving lives – and around the world the healthcare industry is finding more ways to do that every day. 

From predicting epidemics to curing cancer and making staying in hospital a more pleasant experience, big data is proving invaluable to improving outcomes.

This is very good news indeed – as the cost of caring has skyrocketed in recent years and is expected to continue to do so as the population ages – to the point…

Big Data still causes a lot of confusion in people's heads: What really is it? What is new and what is old wine in new bottles? In order to bring a little more clarity to the concept I thought it might help to describe the 4 key layers of a big data system - i.e. the different stages the data itself has to pass through on its journey from raw statistic or snippet of unstructured data (for example, social media post) to actionable insight.

The whole point of a big data strategy is to…

I always make the point that data is everywhere – and that a lot of it is free. Companies don’t necessarily have to build their own massive data repositories before starting with big data analytics. The moves by companies and governments to put large amounts of information into the public domain have made large volumes of data accessible to everyone.

Any company, from big blue chip corporations to the tiniest start-up can now leverage more data than ever before. Many of my clients ask…