Drowning in Data? Big Data Bootcamps Could Be a Lifesaver

It’s often been said that there’s no such thing as too much information. But for a company whose data stream has become a river, dealing with the deluge can often feel as overwhelming as trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon. And with more data being created every minute, it can be easy for a company to stop fighting the undertow.

IBM understands this, and has developed a series of educational opportunities for its partners, end user customers and even students to learn how to navigate the rising tide of data. Its global skills initiative consists of a series of bootcamps to highlight the tools and technologies to help companies tackle what the company refers to as ‘big data,’ or the proliferation of information from seemingly endless resources including sensors, mobile devices, social networks, cloud computing and other public sources of information.

“Partners, just like our customers, are facing the challenge of big data and how to tap into it and apply the information extracted,” said Anjul Bhambhri, vice president of Big Data and Streams at IBM. “We want to give them early access to this technology so they can play with it and we can hold their hand to help them understand the possibilities and they can come up with better ideas of how they can put this technology to use.”

Analytics, of course, plays a major role in harnessing big data. But its more than just data mining; Bhambhri said it’s all about discovering patterns and being able to make decisions based on realtime information.

“In the healthcare field, for example, large amounts of data need to be processed quickly to help patients that need help,” she said. “In cases where time is of the essence, yes, ultimately someone will figure out what to do — but when you lose the time you may lose a life.”

The bootcamps will showcase IBM software and many of the underlying technologies of the Watson computing system – which harnessed big data to beat the snot out of its worthy opponents on the quiz show “Jeopardy!” in February 2011 – to grab information from new sources and use it to create business opportunities, according to IBM. IT professionals will have free access to 1,200 on-site skills bootcamps at various locations worldwide, as well as at 38 IBM Innovation Centers and online at DB2University.com.

For partners, it also means an opportunity to learn more about a disruptive technology that is bound to change the face of information-gathering and dissemination – and discover ways they can offer such technology to their end-user customers.

Health care, energy, government and even enterprises looking to discover customer sentiment are examples of verticals that can use a hand with big data, Bhambhri said.

Some of the technology used within Watson have already been productized – IBM’s InfoSphere Streams analytics software is one such example – but the bootcamps will emphasize the product set as a whole, including analytics, data management and open source technologies including Hadoop and Eclipse.

“This is the start of the journey for big data and it’s a long journey,” Bhambhri said. “An iterative approach is definitely what we want to do.”

IBM has all the information about the bootcamps, including dates and locations, on its website.

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