At Ascent, we have been focused on the growth of data analytics – or as we called it back in 2008, the ”Explosion of Data” – for close to a decade. In the early days we backed companies such as ZoomInfo, Cymfony (acq. by TNS) and Bizo that comb the web, collecting data to build professional […]
We’ve written frequently about BYOD, the consumerization of IT and their impacts on enterprise technology. As disruptive to the enterprise as BYOD has been, it’s also somewhat become the norm, with reports that as many as 70 percent of employees who own a smartphone or tablet choose to use it to access corporate data, and […]
We’ve long been excited at Ascent about the tremendous potential gains from the analysis of data and the complex business problems it can solve. And now I believe we’ve reached the point that organizations need to begin the shift toward data-driven decision making that can move the needle. But for many businesses, this shift is […]
I enjoyed speaking on a big data panel at the E2 Conference on Wednesday in Boston, but the more I participate in these events, the more I agree that “big data” is a silly marketing term, a meaningless catch-all that provides answers to nothing. Perhaps it is needed to make a distinction from traditional data […]
What a difference a year makes. Well, almost a year. For our newest Ascent Index we took another look at BYOD, the evermore popular news topic as more employees use their personal devices for work purposes. Our Index data confirms that BYOD is only gaining steam, and that’s putting it mildly. In the month of […]
I have written a number of times about the massive potential that resides in extracting insight from data. Leveraging new database, storage, parallel processing and cloud infrastructure, we can now get to these insights at cost levels and in timeframes that can impact decision making at very regular intervals and in major ways. This was […]
Gartner made headlines recently when it predicted big data would create 4.4 million jobs by 2015. The analyst firm opined that there’s not enough hired talent to meet the challenges of big data and finding opportunities to turn information into revenue. Gartner reasons that big data will accelerate growth in the global economy and create […]
Last week, when I was at the Xconomy Future of Big Data event moderating a panel on analytics & data infrastructure, one of the speakers essentially said the term ‘Big Data’ is somewhat meaningless. He’s right, of course; there are too many important sub-categories for one overarching term to have any real meaning. He also […]
Our blog has been relatively quiet for the last month, but it’s not because we’ve stopped writing or taken a long vacation. We’ve been quite busy, actually, contributing articles to various publications throughout the month of August. Here’s a quick recap of what we’ve written recently, in case you missed them: GigaOM: The Problem with […]
Even before Governor Patrick announced the Massachusetts Big Data Initiative in May, the state had already established itself as the big data capital of the world. We have 12,000 people employed in the sector in more than 100 companies. We have big money flowing from venture capital ($350 million in 2011) to fund local startups […]
