Companies are constantly at war with each other, trying to get the edge up on their competition. For some companies, it's the only way to stay alive. For others it's a matter of pride. The CIO is in the unique position to provide the weapons needed to win the war. In order to do that it's necessary for the CIO to understand the landscape of possible tools, both established and cutting-edge.
Ben Werther, Founder and CEO of Platfora works with CIOs to help them put the winning tools in place and offers his perspective, "There are two types of companies -- those that run on facts, and those that run on fiction, feelings and faith. As a CIO you have the power to decide which side of history you want to be on. If you want to be Netflix and not Blockbuster then it is imperative that you empower every business user to interrogate all the data until it surrenders the facts.
"It is easy to dismiss Big Data as hype, but you'd be taking the opposing position to industry leaders like Jeff Immelt at GE. There has been a marked change in the tone of CIOs I talk to -- from the peacetime notion that Big Data is worth some experimentation, to the wartime notion that the survival of their businesses rely on their ability to become a fact-based enterprise more quickly than their competitors."
Certainly Big Data has emerged as one of the more powerful tools available to enterprises that want to move ahead of their competition. Big Data isn't the only tool being using to fight this war, and needless to say it won't be the last. What weaponry are you equipping your arsenal with this year?
