Big data in a historical context
3 responses to “Big data in a historical context”
-
Your first link is missing an ‘L’ (http://broadstuff.com/archives/2802-When-Big-Data-rediscovered-the-1970s.html).
I always like seeing the word ‘big’ removed from “big data” ;) Have ordered The Second Machine Age, sounds very interesting.
With “Kryder’s Law” (cost of storage halves every 18 months), and “Moore’s Law” (no. of transistors doubling every 2 years), yesterdays “big” becomes tomorrows “small” quite quickly. The big problem with using “big data” software solutions is you are using technology that is more suited to Google, Facebook, NASA etc, when often all you need is a well optimised SQL database. There are some cases where “big data” software solutions are better, however they often take longer to implement, are more costly, to get the same outcome.
Developers will always want to use the latest and greatest technology (the best people will), however they often need reminding of the commercial implications. SQL has been around since the 70s (40 years this year!) so the number of people around who understand and are skilled in SQL is huge compared to those in “big data”. SQL is also one of the few languages that is consistent across different providers (if you know MySQL, chances are you can work with SQL Server, PostgreSQL etc).
Often with technology there’s a lot of putting the cart before the horse. The best Engineers, in whatever field they are in, take scientific knowledge and apply it to real world problems. If the solution they come up with, is more complicated than the problem, then they’ve failed at their solution.
Technology should make our lives easier and better, otherwise, what’s the point?
-
Thanks, Scott – for the correction and the really interesting comment…
-
…Additional Information ca be found here
[…]you made running a blog glance[…]
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.