Businesses’ information troves are growing everyday and on all fronts: Customer relationshipand vendor management systems chip in withstructured data contributions, while call-centerlogs, open-ended surveys, web sites and theuntamed world of social media pile more andmore unstructured and semistructured data onto the plate.Indeed, even before there was a Web 3.0, experts often wouldcite the finding that 80 percent of business-relevant informationoriginates in unstructured form.Today, companies are all about trying to make sense of thisroiling sea of big data. Buried within these quickly expandingand incredibly disparate stores of information are insightsthat can propel them to greater success. The struggle, though,is determining what keys they’ll need to unlock the knowledgethat lies within the data to predict customer behaviors,BigDATA BOUNTYHelp your customers harvest the riches of their data toachieve the next level of success.By Jennifer Zainoprevent fraud, optimize operations—and so much more. Thechallenging proposition has only just begun: While businesstransactions in databases remain the most significant sourceof data analysis, according to the 2012 Intel IT Center reportEXECUTIVE SUMMARYAnalyzing massive amounts of structured andunstructured data is a big challenge. Big data solutions span people, process andinfrastructure. Open a dialog with line-of-business managersat your clients. Drive success through Ingram <strong>Micro</strong>’s big dataecosystem.18 CHANNEL ADVISOR SPRING 2013
on big data analytics, the top five list also includes four semistructuredor unstructured sources—documents, email, sensoror device data, and imaging data.But IT leaders are game for all of it. The same report atteststo the high priority big data analytics has at companies: 90percent of the 200 IT managers from large companies surveyedrated improving data analytics capabilities as very important.Accomplishing this is going to be a multifaceted effort thatstarts with sussing out the big data picture at large. “Big datais a solutions concept that spans everything from process toinfrastructure,” says Scott Zahl, vice president and generalmanager, Advanced Computing, Ingram <strong>Micro</strong>. Organizationshave to identify where the data lives, what consolidationshould take place, how access to information will be governed,and even what human intelligence resources they have tohelp them work with the data. Of course, the computingtechnologies they need for optimizing sorting, querying andanalyzing massive amounts of data—fast—must factor intoconsiderations.Take Customers by the HandThere’s a big opportunity for solution providers to step in andhelp clients craft a strategy and solution that will make sensefor them, especially as they prepare to deal with the rising influxof unstructured data. “We help customers build a road mapand implement it to transform big data from being a problemto being a valuable asset,” says Michael Schuckman, softwarepractice leader at <strong>Micro</strong> <strong>Strategies</strong>, a solution provider in NewJersey. “Larger companies looked towards doing this first, butdefinitely midsize companies are looking as well, since theyhave the same data growth, especially with social media in thepicture and unstructured data they never had before.”The menu of technology options available for solutionproviders to help customers with analyzing big data in all itsvariety is extensive. Technology vendors such as Cisco, EMC,HP and IBM are on tap with storage, networking, applianceand software offerings.<strong>Micro</strong> <strong>Strategies</strong>, for example, helps its customers withIBM solutions like the Netezza-powered Pure Data Systemfor Analytics. This system integrates hardware, software andstorage and uses asymmetric, massively parallel processing forfast query performance on relational data analytic workloads.It integrates with IBM InfoSphere BigInsights, which is builton the Apache Hadoop software framework, for managingand analyzing structured, semistructured and unstructureddata. Together, there’s “the ability to quickly and relativelyinexpensively garner immediate insights from disparate data,”says Schuckman. A component of BigInsights is BigSheets, forbringing line-of-business executives insight into web-scaleunstructured data sets using a spreadsheet metaphor. “Thatmirrors a lot of the capabilities people know from Excel,” saysFrank Lupo, solutions architect, <strong>Micro</strong> <strong>Strategies</strong>.Also coming into play for <strong>Micro</strong> <strong>Strategies</strong>’ customers isIBM InfoSphere Data Explorer, based on the Vivisimo VelocityPlatform, which lets companies visualize structured andunstructured information across systems and data repositories.“They’re the binoculars to data silos,” says Sandra Paykin, businessanalytics/business intelligence director, <strong>Micro</strong> <strong>Strategies</strong>.Regardless of which vendors a solution provider relies onto support its big-data analytics business, Ingram <strong>Micro</strong> canhelp you get up to speed on the technology solutions. Ingram<strong>Micro</strong>’s solutions consulting team, for example, helps VARswith technology education road mapping, and securing theappropriate certifications that are offered by its vendor partnersin the analytics space.Not only that, but an analytics program for some of its keytechnology vendors put in place by Ingram <strong>Micro</strong>’s BusinessIntelligence Center could help you with your big data businesstargets, too. The Center has developed big-data analyticsapplications that leverage Ingram <strong>Micro</strong>’s own and externaldata sources to give vendors better insight into issues suchas how their products are doing, which sectors they are sellinginto, and where things are lagging, says Jeet Mukherjee,senior director, Business Intelligence Center, Ingram <strong>Micro</strong>.The vendors have started using the applications to identifysolution providers “to work with and penetrate a particularvertical vs. a gunshot approach,” he says. “They can really lookat their and our partners in a specific area, and become a lotmore adept at going after that vertical.”Explore New Directions with Your ClientsSolution providers with their eye on the big data analyticsspace also should have their eye on connecting directly withline-of-business executives at their clients. “There’s moreconversation at the line-of-business level in regards to howto use this technology to advance the business,” says JasonHernandez, director, Advanced Computing, Ingram <strong>Micro</strong>.Think titles like senior marketing manager—the typicalpoint person when it comes to getting business value out ofthe mass of unstructured data coming in from customersposting to sites like Twitter or taking their questions and commentsto call centers. “The resellers’ sales organization needsto shift where it’s spending time with the customer, becausethe IT organization isn’t necessarily trying to determine howtechnology can advance or generate revenue for the end customer,or how data can be analyzed to generate revenue,” saysHernandez. To that end, Ingram <strong>Micro</strong>’s field consultants canhelp you develop your sales positioning, including how to starta dialogue with different business contacts at your customers.At Dataskill, a solution provider based in San Diego, thefocus is on the healthcare industry and extracting knowledgefrom a wealth of unstructured data—both internal sourcessuch as a physician’s notes and the patient’s story, and externalsources such as social networking—to drive analysis that willorchestrate more efficient patient workflows, more effectivetreatment regimens and better care. That means it’s importantSPRING 2013 CHANNEL ADVISOR 19
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