Big data is posing significant challenges for companies across the globe, but the exponential growth of datasets is also creating great opportunities to IT companies.<\/p>\n
This is according to Peter Ford<\/a>, managing director of Cisco<\/a> Consulting Services.<\/p>\n Speaking at the Cisco Expo South Africa 2013, Ford said that during the upturn in Internet traffic in the early 2000\u2019s, the scale of data reached terabyte and petabyte levels on a daily basis for many companies.<\/p>\n \u201cAt those levels, standard databases can no longer scale sufficiently to handle big data. But many analysts see it as \u2018the new oil\u2019 with the power to transform economies, bring greater efficiency to businesses, and improve our daily interactions as consumers,\u201d said Ford.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, like oil, data is not truly valuable until it has been refined. This means analyzing it and extracting insights that can be leveraged into valuable action.\u201d<\/p>\n Although it has been the subject of much discussion, big data is really in its infancy. This begs two core questions:<\/p>\n How will big data evolve? And what are the opportunities for service providers to create value in big data?<\/p>\n According to Cisco, big data will present a real opportunity for service providers in Africa, and Cisco IBSG suggests four plausible options for market entry, creating a potential path to becoming a \u201cnetwork-based\u201d infomediary:<\/p>\n \u201cBy its very nature, network traffic is big data. In just one slice of the network \u2013 the mobile network – there are 6 billion mobile subscriptions in the world, and every day 10 billion text messages are sent,\u201d said Ford.<\/p>\n \u201cBig data is already transforming businesses today and playing an integral role in defining new processes to aid in new innovation. Today, it is not a question of whether service providers in Africa should invest, but how far should they go.\u201d<\/p>\n Ford added that at a minimum service providers can use big data internally to transform their operations or expand externally to further benefit their customers as a \u2018network-based data intermediary\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ability for service providers to move more aggressively into this space may be difficult, but the size of the prize may warrant further investigation. By capitalizing on $200 billion of internal and external value creation, service providers can complement their business by becoming an info infomediary,\u201d said Ford.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t ignore 3G networks: Cisco<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Alpheus Mangale GM Cisco SA Q&A<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n SA LTE mobile growth predictions<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n LTE subscriber numbers set to triple in 2013<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n
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