When Ben Haines joined Box as CIO six months ago, the former Pabst Brewing Co. executive wasted no time in getting up to speed with the intricacies of managing IT for a cloud service provider. A veteran of the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space, Haines started his first job in the tech industry with a head start on using data to improve operational efficiency.

It’s been a bumpy ride, Haines tells theCUBE host Dave Vellante and Jeff Kelly at Big Data NYC 2013. Box has grown “fantastically” and now boasts nearly a million users, but the company faces unique challenges in addressing the requirements of its customers and maintaining an edge in the fiercely competitive cloud locker space.

“What I found interesting was that even though it’s consumer tech, we still have the same issues as a CIO,” Haines shares. “So we have lots of system to get the business done, we have lots of data, and lots of challenges. While we might solve them a little bit differently – a few higher level discussions with our tech folks – we have the same issues, lots to work through.”

Asked about Box’s Big Data use case, Haines says that he is currently on the lookout for an analytics tool that would enable his company to better integrate its siloed systems and “make sense of things.” He believes that transforming data into insights is where the “rubber hits the road” for the industry, particularly when it comes to making business answers more accessible to everyday end-users.

Putting insights in the hands of decision makers is a lofty goal, and as such, it’s easier said than done. Haines observes that effective adoption of Big Data requires a fresh approach that not all traditional-minded practitioners are able to take.

Check out the video below for the full interview.