Expert says data a big differentiator for Bahrain

Manama: Data may become a big differentiator for Bahrain as the country embarks on its digital transformation journey, views a top expert. 

According to Lee Miles, general manager, Middle East, Africa and Turkey, Red Hat analysing big data—including often-overlooked “dark data” (as Gartner defines it - ‘information assets that organisations collect, process and store in the course of their regular business activity, but generally fail to use for other purposes’) can yield valuable insights that enterprises can use to improve business.

“Over the last decade or so, the promise of big data has reignited new opportunities for innovation that have led to a favourable position for IT and the Chief Information Officer (CIO)” he added. 

The use cases for big data technology, according to Red Hat, within and outside the enterprise, are growing in volume and variety. Within the enterprise, many use cases are focused on increasing profitability and operational efficiency, including identifying wasteful expenses and improving security. Commercially, there are many developments around wearable technologies. As people use wearable technologies like Apple Watch, there is an opportunity for online shopping, banking, and other services to be enhanced and personalized for users. Enterprises and marketers can gain better understanding of customer behaviour, as these devices can provide an enormous flow of data.

Extracting value 

Before big data is used, the organisation needs the right foundation to have confidence that the data is comprehensive, reliable, and timely. Choosing the right big data solution only solves one part of the problem. Another challenge can be finding the right skills in the IT group to manage new big data workloads and applications. 

According to the report, organisations in Bahrain should keep in mind the five key traits of an effective big data deployment:

1.Open - big data workloads and technologies are quickly evolving. Architectures should be built with interoperable, modular blocks so big data products can work with other solutions in the datacenter.

2.Agile - A nimble infrastructure lets enterprise IT respond to competitive threats, changes in industry trends, and consumer behaviour. Solutions should be chosen with easy scalability and deployment flexibility to help build apps and integrate data sources with extreme flexibility.

3.Secure – Securing big data workloads that support the IT governance standards of the enterprise. Solutions should help normalize the security models used across the datacenter, giving a simple yet holistic view of role-based security to data and apps.

4.Cloud-ready - Big data deployments can span physical, virtual, and private-, public-, and hybrid-cloud environments. Organisation should be able to manage data and building apps across all environments should be done seamlessly.

5.Cost-effective – Investing in open source solutions can help free up valuable resources to help enterprises focus on more valuable tasks and support the business by discovering better ways to engage customers.

Lee Miles also stressed that in running big data applications; organisations in Bahrain need to invest in aggregating data from social media in order to understand public sentiment towards their company, among other use cases. In addition, the governments and enterprises should understand that big data holds tremendous potential in the development of smart cities and revolutionizing industries such as healthcare, retail, oil and gas, banking, and telecommunications.