CIOs face an age-old dilemma in architecting for big data: Do I buy or build? New business problems, inadequate vendor solutions and myriad new technologies complicate the decision. Add to all that the ambiguity of the term, big data, and well ...

1. The big data architecture dilemmaforCIOs
CIOsface an age-olddilemmainarchitectingforbigdata:Do I buyor build?New businessproblems,
inadequate vendorsolutionsandmyriadnew technologiescomplicate the decision.Addtoall that
the ambiguity of the term,bigdata, andwell ...
The buzz generatedbyTeslaMotorsInc. to bringan affordable electriccarto marketby 2017 isstill
growing.ButwithinITcircles,CIOsare more likelytalkingabouthow ElonMusk,CEO andproduct
architectat Tesla, directedhisCIOto dothe unorthodox:buildanenterpriseresource planning
systemratherthan upgrade theirsoftware fromSAP.
It's a move that's makingwaves -- andnot justinreference toERP investments.Atthe MITSloanCIO
Symposium,panelistsappliedbroadermeaningtoTesla'sdecision -- aswell asFacebook'splansto
builditsownCRMsoftware.Theydescribedthe unconventionalchoice asa marketfailure tomeet
expectationsforcustomizedsolutionsandasa potential signal thatthe pendulumis swingingaway
fromstack vendorstobest-of-breedsolutionsandbeyond,particularlyasbigdataisincreasingly
factoredintobusinessstrategy.Butthe keytakeawayforCIOswasperhapsbestarticulatedbyTom
Davenport,professorof informationtechnologyandmanagementatBabsonCollegeinWellesley,
Massachusetts.
"I don't knowif Tesla'ssystemisgoingtocompete withSAPor Oracle.Thatstrikesme as sort of
nuts,frankly,tosay we have to buildall of thatstuff.But buildingsomethingthatsupportsa
strategic,differentiatedaspectof yourbusinesshasalwaysmade sense,"he saidduringthe
Symposiumsessionhe moderatedonbigdata."Presumablythat'sstill wherewe are."
As CIOsarchitectfor bigdata, they're likelytobumpupagainsta commonand longstandingIT
dilemma:Tobuildorbuy?Today,big data infrastructure bottleneckscanbe specificandill-suitedfor
the one-size-fits-allsolutionsthathave dominatedthe marketforyears.The betterfitmaycome
fromtechnologyalternativessuchasin-memoryorNoSQLdatabases,cloud,opensource or,as is
the case forFacebookand Tesla,a custombuild.Butfirst,CIOswill have toparse throughthe
ambiguityof the term"bigdata" itself,juxtaposingwhathasbecome acatch-all marketingphrase
withthe technical painpointsthe businessfaces.Andinthe end,they're likelytomake surgical
rather thansweepingtechnologyinvestments
First,whatis bigdata?
The term bigdata has beenaroundforyears,but itsmeaningisstill muddied."Bigdataisan
umbrellamarketingtermthatisusedto comprise mostof what's interestingthese days,"saidCurt
Monash,analystand founderof MonashResearchinActon,Massachusetts.
Worse,as Monash explainedina2011 blogposttitledBigdata hasjumpedthe shark,the language
usedto define bigdata(includingGartner'swell-known"three Vs") isoftenmisleading,creating
marketconfusion.AsMonashputit, to imagine there'sone technologystackthatcan "handle most
of what'snewinIT is prettysilly."
A blanketuse of the termmightbe expedientforthe vendorsdoingthe selling,butitrunsthe riskof
becomingaheadache forthe potential builderorbuyer,accordingtoDarrell Fernandes,CIOof the
professionalservicesgroupatFidelityInvestments. The label "canhurtusat times,"he saidduringa

2. bigdata panel at the MIT Symposium.That'sespeciallytrue if the connectionbetweentechnology
investmentandbusinessoutcomeisfuzzy.Unlikethe CRMtech trendinthe 1990s whenyoucould
connectCRM technologytoanexplicitbusinessvalue,Fernandessaid,bigdatadefinedbroadly
resultsinnothingexceptgeneralizedanxietyonthe businessandthe ITside.
Fernandesisn'talone indescribingwhatsome expertscall the "bigdatabacklash."Forrester
ResearchInc.,for example,deliberatelyavoidsdefiningbigdataas a technologyorevenasa
technologyproblem,because thosetermscancause technologiststo"missthe broadertrend,"
accordingto the recentForresterreport,ResetonBigData. Instead,bigdatais"closingthe gap
betweenthe amountof informationthat'savailableandyourabilitytouse thatinformationfor
businessinsight,"BrianHopkins,ananalystforthe Cambridge,Massachusetts-basedconsultancy
and one of the report'sauthors, said."Itis a journey."
Andthe journeyrequiresknowingwhyyou're makingitinthe firstplace.Forresteradvisesthat
before buildingorbuyinganything,businessandITleadersdrill downintothe use cases.Sometimes
these use caseswill require atechnologyinvestment,Hopkinssaid."Butsometimesyourbusiness
has to overcome importantcultural issueswithhow theymake decisionsbasedondata,"he said.Big
data assumesthatthe businessmodel isdata-driven.Becomingamore data-drivenorganization
requiresacertainlevel of competency,andCIOswoulddowell tounderstandwherethe businessis
before makinganykindof investment,Hopkinssaid.
A single vendorlikelywon'tcutit
Whena big data technologyinvestmentisnecessary,HopkinscautionedCIOstoavoidthinkingin
name-brandterms(suchasHadoop,a broadlyusedsynonymforbigdatathese days),butinstead
focuson functionality.He suggestedlookingfor"flexibleandaffordablewaystocapture,store and
analyze data,"the functionsHadoopindeedprovides,he said.
Most likely,atechnologystackthatcan take on all of the modern-daydataproblemsabusiness
encounterswon'tcome froma single vendor."There are nonice,neatpackagesyoucan acquire,"
Hopkinssaid.Andbuyingfroma single vendorispricey,accordingtoMonash."It's an extremely
expensive directive,"he said."Notjustintermsof money,butalsoin termsof administrativecosts
and so on."
That includesofferingsfrommegavendorssuchasIBM, MicrosoftandOracle whohave "a complete
stack,"Hopkinssaid."ButI don'tthinkitworksas nicelyastheythink,andneithershouldthe buyer."
Optingforthe opensource route,however,comeswithitsownsetof difficulties,Hopkinssaid.
Vendorssuchas Cloudera,MapRand Hortonworks"are makingchoicesaboutwhichversionsof the
opensource projectto support."And,insome cases,those same vendorsare buildingnew,
proprietaryfeaturesthatare made redundantbythe opensource community.Customerswill have
to thinkintermsof "technical buildingblocks,"Hopkinssaid."Whatbuildingblocksdoyouneedto
go afterbusinessopportunitiestoclose the gap?"
Monash has hisownrule of thumb:"Figure outwhat yourtoughesttechnical requirementsare,"he
said."By toughest,Imeanthe parts that the fewestvendorscansatisfy.Andthose will be closely
relatedtowhatyour businessproblemsare."

3. The focus onbusinessproblemsorbusinessoutcomescannotbe overstated.AsFernandes
explained,hisorganizationhasworkedhardtomake the conceptof bigdata more concrete."What
we've seenover[the] lastseveral yearsisareal focuson specifichypothesis,specificuse case toget
away frombigdata and getreallyspecificonthe outcome,"he said."That'show we've gotten more
tractionin solvingsome of these things."
Source : searchcio.techtarget.com
Recommendedby:
JonCohn ,CTO, VP IT Architecture
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonacohn
joncohn@comcast.net
"JonCohn ExtonPA""JonCohn Exton""JonCohnEvolution"