Has Big Data Lost its Mojo?

A number of surveys were published during 2017 which suggested that Big Data has lost the CxO mind share that it had.

The overall impression gained was that business leaders are putting their emphasis on Artificial Intelligence (in particular Machine Learning) and IoT, whilst CIOs and Technical Leaders are worrying about Security and Lean (Agile and DevOps). 

At the same time the consumer and gadget end of things are focusing on wearables, voice and VR/AR based devices (implying other types of AI are getting important). 

Somewhere in the mix, people are worrying about culture, product management and marketing, and organisations designed around empowered product teams.

There almost appears to be an assumption that big data has been cracked and apps are easy. Also, data governance is not really getting the attention that it should do and vendors are pushing APIs for integration.

This suggests not just a gap between business vision and technical capability to deliver, but also that the consumer led boom in exploitation is going places which don't necessarily fit well with classical business environments. Open plan offices are not the place where people should all be talking to their digital assistants.

The lessons I draw from this are than business management teams need to start thinking holistically about what is needed to deliver their new business (i.e. digitally augmented) strategies and models, but also about what the future workplace looks like. Is the office finally dying?

They also need to get real about data. It needs to be managed using lean data principles. Integration and security are vital to get right. IoT and other exploitation approaches are going to emphasise Big Data's importance further. So it's vitally important to develop data specialists who understand your business and are networked with the right people. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review suggests that most organisations have focused on technicalities and need to look at a more immersive approach and organisational issues too.