Big Data is the New Natural Resource: New IBM Tool Powers Decision Making

Big Blue finally revealed the fruits of a four-year R&D initiative involving hundreds of IBM engineers, along with resources provided by 200 partners and 100 clients. The initiative aims to realize a motto of being the new enterprises ‘natural resource,’ an observation that is by all means true based on some of the data in this infographic (see below).

In addition to quantifying social media activity and the growth of data in what the company refers to as the digital universe, IBM’s researchers also pulled some other interesting statistics. Companies leveraging big data in their decision making are over two times more likely to “substantially outperform their industry peers,” according to the chart, and see a x1.6 increase in revenue growth. The company also cites doubled profit increase, and an even greater rise in stock appreciation.

All in all Big Blue is all about analytics in the enterprise, and its new software offerings look to tap this market. DB2 10 and InfoSphere Warehouse 10 can “easily integrate with big data systems,” according to the IT giant, and offer technical advantages that justify this integration.  Clients can reduce the amount of storage they use by up to 90 percent, and process warehouse queries 10 times faster.

In addition, there are three specific features that stand out more than anything. For one there’s Hadoop support and data compression and tiering, as well as a Time Travel Query tool.

“Time Travel Query enables easier access to data at any point in time. For example, an online travel agency can automatically detect inconsistencies in itineraries such as a hotel booked in Rome for eight days while a car is reserved in New York City for three of those days. Previously, database administrators and application developers had to write complex code to uncover this relationship.”

IBM is starting to take up a lot of space on the big data bandwagon, quite literally.  Just yesterday we learned that IBM will be in charge of developing the analytics software behind what will eventually become one of the world’s most powerful telescopes.