Big Data, Big CIO Opportunity?

There's enough hype, marketing, and certainly media attention on Big Data to catch a CIO's attention. But beyond the hype, there is something very real and very important for CIOs about Big Data - a potential opportunity and a possible threat.

I really like O'Reilly's simplified definition of Big Data and Introduction to the Big Data Landscape. Big Data is volume (how much data), velocity (how much new data, and how much does the data change), and variety (both structured and unstructured data). Big Data is "hot" because the technologies to solve Big Data challenges are more accessible - cloud, in memory databases, easy to use visualization tools, new database options (nosql, xml, ...), and choice between open source and commercial tools. Big Data is also Big Business, and is sized to $50 billion by 2017 with both big and small vendors competing. Also, new data and analytical capabilities has the potential to transform entire industries.

Big Data also presents both talent and organizational challenges, but more on that in another post.

In talking about Big Data with a colleague, I realized what should be important to the CIO today  is that Big Data is relative. How much volume, velocity, or variety that "defines" Big Data is relative to the CIO's capabilities (both technical and organizational) versus the competition in the industry. So an organization that is lagging in Big Data and analytical capabilities is going to find that their competition is smarter, faster, and possibly more profitable. A CIO that can drive the organization's Big Data capabilities has the potential to create a strategic advantage versus competition.

Big Data is about scale - can the CIO outpace the organization's vision on what it wants to do with data using a combination of talent, technology and process? If the organization doesn't have a "data vision", then the CIO needs to paint the canvas of possibilities by demonstrating new analytical capabilities.

So yes, there's plenty of media and hype, but the CIO has to pay attention.

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Top Five Itineraries for the CIO's Offshore Visit

Visiting the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata

What should a CIO say to the troops - the architects, developers, testers, project managers, business analysts, product owners, engineers, support staff - when you have limited opportunities to meet them face to face? I had several of those moments over the last couple of weeks as I visited several development and operational teams that work offshore. I visit these teams yearly, and last year I posted my Top Ten Reasons to Visit your Offshore Teams. With such limited to visit each team, I needed a structured approach and itinerary to these visits. Here's what it looked like:

• Craft the message - I'm usually not a big fan of presentations, but with limited time, this was the best approach to show case several important tools my team had developed. The presentation covered our accomplishments in 2011, our goals for 2012 and our team structure. I then had a few open dialogues around two keep aspects of our technology culture and process - agile development and our software development standards.
• 15 minutes in the life of - I'm an "in the weeds" CIO. I like looking at computer screens and seeing how people do their work. You can learn a lot by just inspecting the code your developer is working on, the test cases your tester is automating, or the tools your support team is leveraging. Believe me, if the CIO can't listen, read, and understand what he or she is seeing, it's even harder for others to collaborate. Also, I like to get a sense of whether individuals are working on the right things, at the right level of quality, with the right tools.
• Meet individuals - Create opportunities to have one on one conversations. Sometimes, you have to make sure the agenda includes these conversations, other times you have to fabricate these moments. The CIO has to help make connections between onshore employees and offshore consultants, so there's no better way than to identify and meet with key individuals while visiting teams.
• Teach the business - The CIO must represent the Business on these trips and recognize that consultants probably have little understanding of the industry, customer needs, competing products, etc. There isn't an easy way to give consultants a full course during a short visit, so I like to leave them with simple "pictures" or "stories" that help them identify with industry dynamics or with key customer segments.
• Learn new capabilities - New capabilities can come from your partners and their vast R&D resources, but it can also come from your teams and individuals. A strong offshore visit should include sessions where new capabilities are explored, a dialogue develops, and ideally new ideas emerge. This is one of the reason I like to bring Business colleagues on these trips.

The other piece of advice I have is to keep a journal of follow ups and action items. I'm still organizing my final list from a trip that I completed last week!

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