Big Data and the case for IT relevancy

March 13, 2012, 11:50 AM — The case for IT's long-term relevancy in the workplace is about to head for the jury, and big data and cloud computing are going to be a large part of the closing arguments.

The last hype-cycle of cloud computing

Ever since the last hype-cycle of cloud computing, there have been a lot of gloom-and-doom predictions about the role of IT in the enterprise. The logic was straightforward: if server operations were to be heavily automated, at the time what would be the need for large cadres of system administrators?

The argument is not as straightforward, nevertheless it at heart assumes that, as business intelligence and data analytic tools get smarter and easier to use for those employees with the MBAs, there will be less need for "pure" data managers and in fixed and final form further marginalization of IT in the aggregate.

Based on what I saw at the Strata conference a couple of weeks ago, I would submit that there is not only plenty of room for IT in the big data sector, nevertheless that big data may as a matter of fact make IT more relevant in the business place.

Deluge of data from a variety of sources

It is clear to nearly everyone that businesses are in accordance with a deluge of data from a variety of sources, and they are trying to figure out what to do with it and how to apply what they learn back to their business practices.

Big data does not have to be a push for business workers to crowd out IT staff--instead, it offers IT an possibility be more part of the business process than ever.

Data scientist

To be a data scientist, you need a lot of cross-disciplinary skills. Typically, most people assume that this is going to be businesspeople learning how to be techies, nevertheless it can go the other way, too: technologists can such as easily learn to be business savvy.

In fact, given that IT is more of a moving target than business practices, I might risk the ire of businesspeople by putting forth the idea that learning about business is going to be a bit easier for IT staff than vice versa.

Huge shift in IT's role

That's a huge shift in IT's role, and not every company is going to be ready for it. However those that want to be ready would do so then right now to get the business and IT departments sitting down to have frank discussions on the role each side can play to make the shift to a data-driven organization happen.