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THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
4 FOREWORD
8 CHAPTER 01
DATA IS THE 14
THE DATA EXPLOSION
CHAPTER 02
NEW OIL
THE OPPORTUNITY WITHIN
20 CHAPTER 03
LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS
24 CHAPTER 04
CLIVE HUMBY THE FUTURE OF DATA
CHIEF DATA SCIENTIST, STARCOUNT 30 CONCLUSION
INVENTOR TESCO CLUBCARD
32 PREDICTIONS &
RECOMMENDATIONS
34 ABOUT US
THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
FOREWORD
Data rules the world. This isn’t just what The authors suggested that Big Data’s potential
they say out in Silicon Valley – it’s a simple has been overhyped; analysts stand accused
of making leaps of logic when interpreting
matter of fact. the data, identifying causation where there
We create more data every 20 minutes than is none, and making recommendations
is currently held by the Library of Congress. based on spurious correlations.
More than 90 per cent of all the data in the
While there may be some truth in this, such
world was generated in the last two years
criticism does not diminish the increasing
alone. Today, every company – from Aston
value of Big Data in various fields, from
Martin to Zoopla – is to a greater or lesser
business to healthcare, from sport to space
extent a data company that churns out
exploration. The backlash is a typical response
colossal levels of information by the second.
to ambitious claims about potential, even if
This has led to the rise of what has become the technology does end up transforming
known as ‘Big Data’: information sets so the world. The Economist perhaps said it
large and complex that to understand them best: “It happened with the internet, and
using traditional methods would be impossible. television, radio, motion pictures and the
An increasing number of organisations hope telegraph before it. Now it is simply Big
that using new technology to store, query and Data’s turn to face the grumblers.”
analyse this data in real time will help them
The truth is that with more information at our
better understand their customers’ behaviour.
fingertips we stand to learn more about the
Information that was previously thrown away is world around us – and act with greater
transforming every facet of human existence. precision, speed and efficiency. In Think Big:
And what was once dismissed as useless is Britain’s Data Opportunity, we outline the Big
essential to devising data-driven solutions to Data opportunity to show how organisations
universal problems, offering the potential big and small are capitalising on its potential.
to make us safer, happier and healthier. We
Companies of the future will live or die by
shouldn’t think about Big Data as simply being
their analytical skills and the Chief Data
an endless bundle of information. Instead we
Officer could well be the future king of the
should think of it as providing the opportunity
boardroom. The business heroes of the
of competitive advantage across every industry.
coming years may be more scientific than
A study by McKinsey estimated that data- artistic, able to make insightful commercial
driven strategies could save up to $100 billion conclusions based on empirical evidence.
annually across the US healthcare system
Here at WANdisco we believe in the power
alone, helping to optimise innovation, improve
of Big Data, but our view is the UK isn’t yet
research and ultimately build new life-saving
doing enough to harness the opportunity.
tools for medical staff. SAS, a software
What’s lacking is an approach that will ensure
provider, predicts the UK government could
we have enough data scientists, as well as
save up to £2 billion by implementing Big Data
enough managers and analysts with the
solutions to detect fraud1.
know-how to make effective decisions.
The UK government has named Big Data as Our education system is not producing the
one of ‘eight great technologies’ for the future, graduates with the skills to get Britain ready
predicting that it will generate £216 billion for its data destiny.
and provide 58,000 jobs for the economy by
It’s our belief that every conceivable area of
2017. Almost £50 million has been set aside to
life where things need to be organised and
fund The Alan Turing Institute and provide a
decisions made will transform to become
British base for Big Data and algorithm
leaner, more efficient, more powerful and
research.
more lasting. Welcome to a new era: the age
Despite this momentum, Big Data has its of Big Data.
critics. In March 2014, FT Weekend published
a four-page feature with the title ‘Big Data:
are we making a big mistake?’, while in June DAVID RICHARDS
the same year The Guardian ran with CEO, PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER,
‘Big Data: saviour or sham?’. WANDISCO
4 Data equity: Unlocking the value of big data, SAS & CEBR, 2012.
1
www.wandisco.com 5
BY 2020 THE AVERAGE BY 2017 THERE WILL THE MARKET FOR BIG
BUSINESS WILL HAVE BE A TOTAL OF 19 DATA TECHNOLOGY
TO MANAGE 50 TIMES BILLION INTERNET AND SERVICES WILL
MORE INFORMATION CONNECTED DEVICES REACH $16.9 BILLION
THAN IT DOES TODAY IN THE WORLD BY 2015
ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT WEF 2012 IDC 2012
& CAPGEMINI 2012
BIG DATA IN 2014 THERE WILL OVER THE LAST 10
BE AN EXPECTED 77 YEARS THE DIGITAL
BY NUMBERS BILLION APPLICATION SHARE OF THE
DOWNLOADS, WORLD’S STORED
COMPARED TO 10 INFORMATION HAS
BILLION IN 2010 INCREASED FROM
THERE WILL BE CISCO 2013
25% TO OVER 98%
OVER 40 TRILLION IBM 2013
GIGABYTES ON EARTH
BY 2020 – THAT'S
5,200 GIGABYTES 64% OF ENTERPRISES
FOR EVERY PERSON ARE PLANNING BIG BIG DATA JOBS
IDC & EMC 2012 DATA PROJECTS IN ARE FORECAST TO
THE COMING YEAR INCREASE 92% BY 2017
GARTNER 2013 SAS 2013
6 7
THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
We live in a world dominated by data. The main reason for this data explosion is
Every shopping trip, search queried on the rise of connected devices and software
capable of creating files of text, images and
Google, Uber-cab hailed and change video. At the end of 2013, one in every five
in the traffic-lights is in some way a people in the world had a smartphone, while
data transaction. one in 17 owned a tablet, according to
CHAPTER 01 research by Business Insider.
01
The phenomenon has also been fuelled
THE DATA
because web users are increasingly
comfortable with sharing personal details
about themselves when they interact
It’s not necessarily true that there’s more
EXPLOSION
with websites.
data out there than before; rather that,
instead of disappearing into the ether, details Meanwhile, even more data is created by
of how we conduct our daily lives are mobile phones automatically through global
increasingly being captured, stored and used positioning, Bluetooth, Wifi and other kinds
(in most cases) to make our lives better. of mobile data that phones produce without
users necessarily knowing about it.
In 2012, the International Data Corporation
(IDC) calculated that there was a total of In 2012, technology analysts at Gartner
1.8 zettabytes of data stored in one shape or concluded that between 10% and 15% of
another across the world, nearly 50% more organisations were making proper use of Big
than in 2010. It said that the global stock of Data and added that those that did would see
data was therefore doubling, at least, every a 20% increase in revenue as a result.
two years.
Google, Facebook and Amazon are the
For context, an average email might be giants of the internet age, but above all they
50 kilobytes (50,000 bytes) in size – attach are data companies. Demography, buying
a picture and it becomes five megabytes. trends, times, dates, where people come
A large computer hard drive might be able to from and where they go are all logged and
store a terabyte – or 1,000 bytes cubed – crunched in a bid to understand users better,
of data, while even an average phone give them more of what they want, and
contains 16 gigabytes. make them easier to target for marketeers.
8 www.wandisco.com 9
CHAPTER 01 THE DATA EXPLOSION THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
235 TERABYTES OF DATA SITS IN THE US LIBRARY OF INTRODUCING BIG DATA
CONGRESS – FACEBOOK ALONE STORES, ACCESSES
AND ANALYSES OVER 30,000 TERABYTES.
MCKINSEY
HADOOP CLOUDERA HORTONWORKS
GOOGLE PROCESSES MORE THAN Apache Hadoop is the enterprise Cloudera was founded in 2008 to Hortonworks does one thing:
24,000 TERABYTES OF DATA A DAY. framework of Big Data that is used provide the first enterprise-ready building, managing and
both to store and process implementation of Apache implementing Hadoop. The
ACM – COMPUTING SOCIETY
incredibly large data sets. Hadoop, set up by three engineers company has devoted itself to
from Google, Yahoo and Facebook working within the open source
The underlying technology was
THE BIG DATA MARKET IS FORECAST TO BE WORTH originally invented by Google to
– three businesses that were space, reaching out to customers
among the trailblazers of Hadoop. through the existing products of
$32.1 BILLION IN 2015 – RISING BY 49.5% TO $48 BILLION index all the rich textual and
its partners such as Microsoft,
structural information they were Based in Palo Alto, California,
IN 2016 AND 66% TO $53.4 BILLION BY 2017. collating, and present results to Cloudera has enjoyed rapid
Teradata and SAP. It houses the
WIKIBON largest collection of Hadoop
users in a meaningful way. growth since first receiving some
“committers” – the name given to
$5 million worth of funding in
Yahoo developed Apache Hadoop those who add code to the
THE MOST ADVANCED FLOPPY-DISKS STORED 200 as an enterprise platform
2009. The company has since
Hadoop mainframe.
expanded to become one of the
MEGABYTES OF DATA – THE AVERAGE HOME COMPUTER incorporating this technology,
leading providers of Big Data Founded in June 2011, the firm’s
allowing companies to run
STORES MORE THAN 5,200 TIMES THIS AMOUNT. extensive analytics of both
solutions, used by a diverse range dedication to open source has
of companies and organisations seen it quickly established as one
structured and unstructured data
including Expedia, BT, Western of the major players within the
– information that doesn’t fit nicely
Union, Nokia and eBay. Hadoop community.
into tables. In the same way
Google indexed users’ search In March 2014, the firm received a The company was set up by 24
Advertisers were some of the earliest adopters With every year that passes more and more behaviour, Hadoop lets $740 million investment from Intel, engineers who were involved in the
of the Big Data approach. Rather than hit and ideas transfer from the realm of science organisations learn more about with its 15% stake valuing the firm original development of Hadoop at
hope, they could target customers who fiction to that of science fact. customers and consumers. at $4.1 billion. Cloudera is one of a Yahoo, and backed by Benchmark
wanted to buy from them. No longer, in theory, handful of Silicon Valley start-ups Capital the firm raised $25 million in
For businesses, Big Data arguably presents The system is designed to run on
would retirees see ads for 18-to-30 holidays to receive multi-billion dollar November of that year.
the biggest opportunity since the birth of a large number of machines that
nor would students be forced to sit through valuations from investors pre IPO.
the internet itself. Big Data is not just for don’t share any memory or disks. Named after Horton the Elephant
details of generous new pension plans.
sophisticated technology firms and it is being When an organisation loads its By replacing its own Big Data of the Horton Hears a Who! book,
But there are thousands of other applications put to use by all organisations in all industries. data into Hadoop, the software project with Cloudera’s solutions, the company was described by
of Big Data that are at various stages of separates that information into Intel provided a strong indication Forrester Research as the
Everyone can learn about the world they
development. Some are being used widely pieces that it then spreads across that Hadoop is the future of “technology leader and ecosystem
inhabit in microscopic detail and use the
right now; some are evolving into usable different servers – meaning there Big Data. builder of the entire Hadoop
information to their advantage. From
products and yet more are mere concepts of is no one place where you industry”.
pharmaceuticals to sports science,
how things could look in the future. Take manage all of your data. Because
businesses that utilise Big Data will create
GRITIT, a UK-based firm that helps to clear there are multiple copy stores,
competitive advantage and open up new
roads during periods of heavy snow. It uses data stored on a server that
market opportunities.
Met Office data to organise and allocate jobs goes offline or dies can be
to regional digger drivers and log work Big Data will not only help businesses make automatically replicated from
carried out. smarter decisions, it will also create a new a known good copy.
line of smart products and services that use
Sending jobs to gritters via smartphone, the
information to perform at their peak while
company tracks their progress while creating
cutting out waste. One thing is for sure, the
reports in real time. By analysing the many
data explosion is only going to get bigger.
variables in the data, the management team
can gauge the success of the job and teams
can investigate if something goes wrong –
even on nights when there are thousands of
site visits.
10 www.wandisco.com 11
THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
EXPERT VIEW
CLIVE HUMBY
CHIEF DATA SCIENTIST, STARCOUNT
INVENTOR TESCO CLUBCARD
Clive Humby is chief data scientist at Starcount, and merging of data sets. This is Big Data, it is
the fan science company, and one half of the different to lots of data you find in a single
source such as phone records.
husband-and-wife duo behind dunnhumby,
the firm credited with the invention of the Taking the retail example further, if we now
compare what people buy with their TV
Tesco Clubcard – one of the first instances viewing habits or changes in the weather,
of Big Data’s early success. we can provide unique and highly specific
insights which are already improving the way
that businesses serve their customers and
I once said that what we are witnessing with
how efficiently they run.
Big Data is a revolution reminiscent of that
seen with the discovery of crude oil. That Business processes, HR and the customer
remains true today, as we continue to go will all enjoy a massive payback from this
through a process of sourcing and refining revolution.
data, to obtain its true value.
And this isn’t just beneficial for business.
As oil became more plentiful, we developed Big Data has the potential to be the number
technology to turn it into plastics, food and one game-changer in healthcare provision
other powerful applications and as data is globally. From identifying patterns in
today becoming more plentiful, we’re behaviour and illness, to pre-empting
getting much better at using it in new and reactions to specific medicines, data has the
innovative ways. potential to save millions of lives. The data
already exists – we just need to combine it
Big Data, just like crude oil, has the potential
and analyse it.
to become a revolutionary powerhouse of
not only industry but society as well. As we become increasingly reliant on data
as a major driver of economic and social
Yet its value will only be found in a careful
development, it is vital we treat it with the
application of analysis and refinement.
careful analysis and application it requires.
At my former company, dunnhumby, we first We must also nurture it. Consumer privacy
learned to understand customers by and fair use of data become important
analysing what they were buying, where they principles if we want the well to keep flowing.
were shopping and when – establishing the
Downtime is no longer an option and the effect
Tesco Clubcard and transforming Tesco’s
of poor analysis will become increasingly
business model. Today, this is an established
damaging. We must ensure our data is safe
process and works well for many retailers.
and that the next generation are fully
As our experience and ability to analyse data prepared with the skills required to transform
improves, it is clear that the true benefits of the new crude oil into the enormously
data will come with the intricate mapping valuable asset it has the potential to be.
“BIG DATA HAS THE POTENTIAL
TO BE THE NUMBER ONE
GAME-CHANGER”
12 www.wandisco.com 13
THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
THE FUTURE IS NOW
Big Data is often talked about as an asset Data of the sort mined by Tesco is part of a
of the future, but for many organisations it much broader set that has sparked particular
interest – the “found data” that includes the
represents the here and now. Businesses digital exhaust of web searches, credit card
across the world are using the information at payments and mobiles pinging the nearest
their fingertips to work smarter by creating phone mast. While found data is cheap to
products and services that are more relevant to collect, it is in essence a messy collage of
datapoints, each collected for disparate
their customer base. purposes that is constantly being updated in
CHAPTER 02
real time.
02 THE OPPORTUNITY
Retailers were among the early adopters of Harnessing found data was one of the early
Big Data analytics, perhaps most notably challenges encountered by data scientists,
Tesco, whose Clubcard provided the template with a number of critics pointing the finger at
for others to emulate. Back in the early 1990s misguided conclusions as reason to be
WITHIN Tesco was lagging behind both Marks &
Spencer and Sainsbury’s. Fast-forward a few
years and it was the UK’s No.1 retailer.
sceptical of data’s potential.
The UK Meteorological Office is making the
weather a Big Data success story, developing
The story of Tesco’s rise to dominance is the a revolutionary forecasting service. Events in
stuff of legend, but it was rooted in the space, such as solar flares and solar wind,
premise that if any business is to be can impact the performance of the electricity
successful it has to listen. And as former CEO grid, satellites, GPS systems, aviation and
Sir Terry Leahy said: “The best place to find mobile communications used by satellite
the truth is to listen to your customer.” operators, electricity and aviation industries
– even the armed forces.
By analysing the data gleaned from the
company’s flagship loyalty card, Tesco was able The project enables the Met Office to analyse
to extend tailor-made offers to their customers large amounts of different types of data,
with the aim of increasing the return rate. It’s including solar flare imagery from NASA, and
a scheme that has since been imitated the provide warnings of space weather events so
world over, but it is Tesco’s Clubcard that that the government and businesses can take
continues to set the gold standard. appropriate action to minimise its impacts.
The Met Office aims to deliver public space
weather forecasts, providing stakeholders and
interested parties with access to real-time
space weather information and predictions.
MET OFFICE
The Met Office receives about 100 million ‘observation messages’
every day (2014), using an IBM supercomputer that can do more
than 100 trillion calculations per second and produce over
20 terabytes of data every day.
TESCO CLUBCARD
Clubcard now has over 43 million holders globally, processing
6 million transactions a day (2009) and the value of points
redeemed was £780 million in 2010/11.
14 www.wandisco.com 15
CHAPTER 02 THE OPPORTUNITY WITHIN THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
THE DATA DISRUPTORS McLaren’s cars are fitted with more than 100
sensors that record thousands of different
Timesaving strategies are becoming
readings about race conditions, as well as the
increasingly common, helping institutions
car and driver’s performance. It is said that by
make the shift to digital while increasing the
the end of an average race enough data has
level of service afforded to customers.
been logged to fill several telephone books.
For more than 150 years Western Union
The sensors are not only deployed across
has helped make the world a small place,
several different cars on race day, but also in EXPERT VIEW
originally delivering telegrams and now
testing, simulations and practice laps. The data
processing money transfers that stretch from
is interpreted to find out whether performance BARBARA HOLZAPFEL
one corner to the globe to the other.
is optimal or if more tweaking is required. It FORMER MD, SAP LABS NORTH AMERICA
Today it is one of the world’s largest financial is compared to previous races and different
services companies, one that processes drivers to get the best possible picture.
$79 billion and generates more than 200 Barbara Holzapfel is former head of SAP Labs, Data is already having massive implications
But this technology developed for F1 has
terabytes of data annually. for how people work and live and how
been revolutionary elsewhere. McLaren the world-leading provider of enterprise
The firm is applying Big Data analytics to Electronic Systems is heavily involved business is conducted. It will create new
software and software-related services. opportunities in the development of new
eliminate wire transfer fraud, speeding up in advanced monitoring for healthcare
a process that takes a fraction of the time applications. The tech that was developed to applications and services; anything from
demanded by traditional methods. Every day monitor human physiology on the racetrack network infrastructure, to databases, to the
the company taps massive databases to sort is the underlying framework for what is used carrier capacity, to the software tools on top
through customer information and calculate by doctors in hospitals. And at McLaren Big Data is a huge driving force in the wider of it all. All the existing models for those will
the risk that a particular transaction might be Applied Technologies, the company has context of the Internet of Things. Companies be rethought.
the result of a scam. When they find a risky been applying F1-tested manufacturing are now collecting, aggregating and analysing
To illustrate one such opportunity we could
transaction, they block it. technology to new products that would data at a much higher speed than previously
look at a case in San Francisco, where 30 per
benefit from similar structural techniques – possible. It has opened up a completely new
To protect consumers Western Union cent of the traffic in the city comes from drivers
such as aerodynamics. dynamic in how businesses are run and how
analyses huge streams of data for anomalies, trying to find parking spaces. That has a major
they interact with their ecosystem.
using Hadoop to deal with the complexity McLaren CIO Stuart Birrell says that Big Data impact on the local and global environment.
of its data queries. Not only is this a lot less is underpinning everything the company is But what we are seeing now is just the tip
Through innovations in Big Data, you can
expensive and more capable than past data working on. The firm says that during racing of the iceberg and innovation will accelerate
now find and reserve a clear parking spot
warehouse solutions, the fraud prevention season the car is modified every 20 minutes at an unprecedented pace over the next
near your destination. You reserve and pay
rate is higher and more comprehensive than based on new information gleaned from few years.
for this through your mobile. The benefit to
ever before. analytics. But the insight provided by Big Data The value proposition is important and it’s up a local coffee company is a tie in to offer
is only so good as the queries made by its to companies like SAP to be clear on what the drinks promotion at the same time. It’s a
The underlying inspiration behind Big Data
engineers. The challenge, as Birrell says, is to user benefits are: what people can do now completely new scenario combining Big
applications is competition – the endeavour
“give these guys who are naturally inquisitive that they couldn’t before and how valuable Data with the cloud, mobile payments and
to gain an advantage over your rival. Perhaps
the ability to ask questions that we in IT that is to them. the Internet of Things.
nowhere is this better demonstrated than in
would have never predicted.”
the cutthroat sport of Formula One racing.
If anything this shows that Big Data does not
erase the need for vision or human insight.
On the contrary, we must have business
leaders who can spot a great opportunity,
understand how a market is developing,
WESTERN UNION
think creatively and propose truly novel
Western Union has 70 million customers in 200 countries, enabling offerings. The successful companies of the
650 million transactions every year, which is around 29 transactions per next decade will be the ones whose leaders
second. This has contributed to what has been described as can do all that while changing the way their
“one of the world’s largest enterprise data sets”. organisations make many decisions. “WHAT WE ARE SEEING
It has more than 200 terabytes of data, and that data is now growing
at a rate of 100 terabytes a year. The data comes in from 174 sources
NOW IS JUST THE TIP OF
including digital platforms, retail locations, and banking partners. THE ICEBERG”
16 www.wandisco.com 17
THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
CASE STUDY
JAMIE TURNER
CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER,
POSTCODE ANYWHERE
Jamie Turner is co-founder of Postcode We are comparatively a ‘little’ Big Data
Anywhere – an address capture company company. We are not like Google or
Facebook, which generate terabytes of data
that helps organisations obtain better quality every second.
data and use it more efficiently. On a website
But we have more access to data than
people typically start to input their address the average business and it’s a massive
with a postcode and then they pick their house opportunity for us. We treat it as a unique
number off a list – Postcode Anywhere does asset that’s very precious – it’s our eyes and
that on a very large scale across the world. ears, and is vital to our future success.
When you rely on automation in this way,
it always has to work, and we need 100%
We have been going for 14 years and on a busy uptime. From a simplistic point of view if
day we process about 10 million transactions. things don’t work, not only do you not get
Our software powers the Royal Mail’s postcode paid, but you also lose credibility and a
finder and the Canadian postal service’s positive reputation with your customers that
postcode finder and we’re in talks with several has taken many years to build.
European data owners to do the same thing.
Our example is even more unusual
We started collecting search terms and the way because our software is used not only by
customers interacted with the service – more our customers, but also by our customers’
for audit purposes than anything else – but customers, so the knock on impact of
we realised the type of service we could offer downtime, or lack of access, will affect an
customers became more useful as we grew. awful lot of people very quickly.
Soon we found ourselves with two major Our postcode software is used in retail
pots of data: all the user history going back checkouts and the impact in those situations
now almost 15 years – several billion records could mean major losses in revenues for our
– and also how our customers interact customers, who simply wouldn’t be able to
with us, what pages they visit and what’s process orders for the period of downtime.
happened on their account.
To the end user, our business is very simple.
That search history lets us know exactly what You put a postcode in and you get an
people get out of the service, and we use address out the other end. We have built that
that information to improve the accuracy business with a reliance on Big Data so quite
of searches. We take search engine-type simply, it has to work all the time, no matter
technologies and apply them to address and what external issues might put that service
location data sets. at risk.
“WE HAVE MORE ACCESS TO DATA
THAN THE AVERAGE BUSINESS AND IT’S
A MASSIVE OPPORTUNITY FOR US”
18 www.wandisco.com 19THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
HEALTH SCARE
“Better information means better care”. That was A BRITISH MIT
the message on millions of leaflets distributed Higher education is where the UK must start, to
by the UK National Health Service (NHS) in ensure a pipeline of talent that can fuel a British
February 2014, offering an opt-out to the new Big Data explosion.
care.data central database of medical records. In many respects UK universities lead the world,
evidenced by students who come in their
droves from across the world to study at
Devised as a singular body of information, to institutions such as Oxford, Cambridge, LSE
CHAPTER 03 give the health service access to information and Edinburgh.
03
which is otherwise scattered among the UK’s
But even the best universities are well behind
LAYING THE
10,981 GP surgeries, care.data was to provide
the game when it comes to training the next
an unparalleled national picture to the
generation of tech talent. There isn’t a single
medical profession.
UK institution that could hold a candle to MIT,
FOUNDATIONS
“I would say that we are running the health Stanford, Caltech or Berkeley in the States.
service blind without it,” was the argument of
The difference is partially one of investment,
one former GP and director of the Health and
but above all one of curriculum and
Social Care Information Centre.
connectivity. Take Stanford, the umbilical cord
Yet no sooner had the public information of the Silicon Valley tech ecosystem, providing
campaign landed on the doormats of a ready stream of bright and highly trained
households across the UK, than it came graduates ready to staff Google and Apple, or
under attack from privacy campaigners. in many cases start their own company.
Criticised as a rushed job which neither the
In the Valley, universities work in perfect
public nor doctors properly understood, it
harmony with tech companies, and there is
was shelved for a minimum six-month period.
an inter-dependence that creates an ongoing
The episode highlighted an inherent virtuous circle between them. It’s no different
conservatism in the public attitude towards when you look at the fast-emerging clusters
the sharing and usage of data. No matter how in India and Israel, to take just two examples.
tangible the benefits — in Scotland, for
What the UK must address is its own
instance, amputations as a result of diabetes
fundamental disconnect between universities
have fallen 40% since a central database of
and business. In both cases, many of the
sufferers was created2 — there will always be a
institutions are outstanding, but the dialogue
kickback from those fearful about the use and
and partnership is not. And that has meant our
abuse of personal information.
higher education lags a step behind the rest of
The fate of care.data also suggested that the world, teaching the skills that were all the
Britain has some way to go to embrace the rage a decade ago, but not the technical
full potential of Big Data. And it’s not just the applications needed by businesses today.
scare stories and popular aversion standing in
the way of progress. There are serious deficits
to be addressed in the skills base and
commercial infrastructure before Britain can
truly “out-compete, out-smart and out-do the
rest of the world” in Big Data, as Chancellor
George Osborne called for in his 2014 Budget.
20 2
The Economist, 22.02.14, “Caring and Sharing”. www.wandisco.com 21CHAPTER 03 LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
CASE STUDY
UCI
Charles Boicey is the Informatics Solutions They are both useful databases, certainly,
Architect for UCI Health, which comprises but they have their restrictions.
the clinical, medical education and research The EMR has to be manually updated, with
enterprises of the University of California at critical data usually not uploaded until 24
Plumbing in a better interface between In December 2013, the government-owned hours after a medical event has taken place.
business and higher education should be seen Royal Bank of Scotland saw thousands take Irvine. US News and World Report listed UCI As a result, they can only present findings
as a matter of urgency if Britain is to take to social media after their cards were refused Irvine Medical Center among America’s Best retrospectively, no doubt useful for when a
advantage of the Big Data opportunity. The at shopping tills. The previous year, sister Hospitals for the 13th consecutive year in 2013. clinician checks a patient’s medical records
experience of a great many UK tech companies company NatWest saw a failed software but not the groundbreaking revolution
is that the graduates on offer are not being update lead to chaos, as payments were
Earlier this year, the hospital became one of the
promised.
suitably prepared by their university courses. unable to process from millions of accounts. world’s first medical institutions to embrace
the opportunity provided by Big Data. Earlier this year, UCI Medical Center became
“The graduates that we have here and in the Entering into the Big Data game is no small one of the first hospitals in the world to
EU, unfortunately, are just not as good as undertaking for companies of all sizes. embrace Big Data. We now use Hadoop-
those from universities in countries like the That means investing in a battle-ready The medical profession has, as with nearly based technology to process accurate
US and India,” is the view of Andrew infrastructure for handling unprecedented every other service and industry, been pattern-set recognitions, use algorithms
Humphries, co-founder of UK start-up levels of information. transformed by technology. Where we work to monitor patient recovery for non-linear
accelerator The Bakery.3 and the tools we use on a daily basis are a far complications, and build predictive-modeling
Without it, disaster can strike, with even a
It is fast-growing businesses that do the most short period of downtime potentially leading cry from the hospitals we trained in, let alone systems to minimize deaths caused by
to lead innovation in the field, and they do to disenchanted customers, complaints and the hospitals in which we were born. medical error.
not have the time or resources to train new even compensation payouts. The future of medicine will be similarly This is drastically improving the level of care
recruits. The imperative lies with universities informed by the revolution in Big Data, with we offer our patients, with doctors alerted as
to up their game. ACTING ON GOOD INTENTIONS many seeing it as the next frontier in identifying soon as vital signs cross a key threshold. And
Larger employers also have a role to play, new cures, minimizing the impact of infection, it has helped ease the burden on our doctors
Big Data is well recognised within the UK
co-investing in the training of the next or taking pharmaceuticals to the next level. and nurses, whose heavy patient loads
as a game-changing technology, officially
generation of British software engineers. The prevent round-the-clock observation.
recognised as such by the Department for Everything from heart monitors and
UK has a proud tradition of developing Business, Innovation and Skills. ventilators, from medicine dispensers to Hadoop is helping UCI Medical create
apprenticeship schemes, but we need big thermometers can now send out a seemingly predictive models that the EMR cannot,
business to get involved. All the right noises are being made, from
infinite amount of data. And it’s been posited especially around heart attack or pneumonia
central government to businesses big and
It is vitally important to involve businesses in that hugely significant trends can be found patients. We are now able to detect trends in
small, about how Britain can take advantage
the major training decisions, particularly for a within all this information, crunching the vast our patients that we weren’t able to before
of the opportunities it creates.
sector that will grow as rapidly as Big Data. amounts of electronic data that’s emitted and act accordingly to prevent hospital
Employers are the people best placed to The Alan Turing Institute, announced and collated by the second to extract highly readmission.
judge what training is worth investing in, in George Osborne’s 2014 Budget, is a valuable findings.
Specifically, we can intercept infections at the
providing students with real, on-the-job strong show of intent. But now a news
But a major challenge has been managing earliest possible opportunity, minimizing the
training and fast-tracking them into decent announcement must become a bricks-and-
the data sets in a way that makes it possible risk to the patient. The positive implications
jobs with promising progression prospects. mortar development, a hub that will enable
to draw conclusions that are coherent and this has for patients are vast and I’ve no doubt
Britain to take a leap forward and make up for
useful. Some doctors and medical staff still more hospitals will follow our lead.
lost time in the Big Data market.
INFRASTRUCTURE need convincing that Big Data analytics has
In order to commit to Big Data in this way,
With the right talent and software relevance for the hospitals of the future, let
The Big Data behemoth requires not just we needed to know that nothing will fail –
infrastructure in place, there is no reason alone hospitals today. Until recently, we at
a ready supply of people to sustain it, we need round-the-clock availability and
Britain cannot claim status as one of the UCI Medical Center would have agreed.
but the infrastructure to cope with levels reliability of this information every second of
world leaders in showing the transformative
of information that until recently were We found that the existing data systems did every day.
power of Big Data.
considered unmanageable. not allow us to manage the flow of data as it
Our healthcare system is on the threshold of
happened in real time, not to mention store
Companies increasingly need constant a radical overhaul as Big Data starts to make
the information in its native form.
availability of data, and the costs of losing this its first tangible mark and shift our approach
access – downtime – can be catastrophic. Most digitally enabled hospitals will be in a most revolutionary way. Soon we will not
Large organisations running legacy systems familiar with the current data systems, most be focused on curing people when they are
can quickly find themselves in the eye of a notably the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) sick, but will be able to identify what can be
storm, when software glitches strike. or Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). done to make people well.
3
Computer Weekly, 03.09.13, “UK tech startups face
22 hiring roadblock due to immigration policy”. www.wandisco.com 23THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
In many ways the term Big Data will soon be As more and more business activity is
obsolete. As the data explosion grows, today’s digitised, new sources of information and
ever-cheaper equipment combine to bring us
big will become tomorrow’s small. into a new era – one in which large amounts
of digital information will exist on virtually any
topic. The challenge will be to identify the
CHAPTER 04 Research conducted by data storage competitive advantage amid all the data.
04
company EMC found that more data is now
The financial services sector has begun to
THE FUTURE
transferred across the internet every second
recognise the value, with the University of
than was stored across the entire internet
Oxford last year reporting that more than
just 20 years ago. The same study reported
71% of the industry already uses Big Data
that the digital universe will be 40 times its
OF DATA
analytics. Today’s banks are using new
current size by the end of the decade, such is
data-driven models in an attempt to return
the rate of its expansion.
to profit following the financial crisis that
While not everyone is embracing Big Data, began in 2008.
there is a strong indication that data-driven
Most investment houses used to rely on
approaches correlate with higher levels of
overnight batch to make trading decisions,
productivity and increased profitability.
meaning their risk management models were
The Harvard Business Review found that the forced to use information that soon became
more companies identified themselves as out of date. Real time analytics are enabling
data-driven, the better they performed better trading and risk decisions, safeguarding
on objective measures of financial and them against the threat of collapse.
operational results. Cross sector analysis
Given the rate at which financial services
reported that firms in the top third of their
firms are embracing Big Data, it will be vital to
industry in the use of data-driven decision
ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to
making were, on average, 5% more productive
protect against technical failure. When
and profitable than their competitors.
Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast of the US,
Elsewhere, a survey conducted by it ripped right through the heart of New York’s
Capgemini and the Economist Intelligence financial district. While data was backed up on
Unit found respondents said the use of Big servers in New Jersey, the neighbouring state
Data has improved business performance on was in the path of the same hurricane leaving
average by 26%. Almost 60% of the same the financial markets in disarray. As Big Data
respondents said they planned to make a becomes ubiquitous, events like these will no
bigger investment in Big Data over the next doubt become increasingly frequent without
three years. the appropriate protection.
24 www.wandisco.com 25CHAPTER 04 THE FUTURE OF DATA THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
As with any sector in its infancy, a wave TV viewing figures have always provided CASE STUDY
of new companies will no doubt spring something of a snapshot of how popular
up to provide services that deal with
problems arising from Big Data – issues and
a programme is. For years, TV executives
placed great weight in the data gleaned THE ALAN TURING INSTITUTE
complications that were not anticipated. Just from transmitters that monitor which shows
think about the range of different business are being watched and when. Extrapolated
types to have emerged for the internet. from the data gleaned from a few thousand In 2014 the British government announced that Government expects Big Data technologies
households, shows are renewed or axed based Big Data was to have a permanent home in the will create some 58,000 more jobs in the UK
Not only will the volume of data change, but
on the reception given by this small sample. by 2017, contributing some £216 billion to the
so too will the variety of sources. Many of the UK. Named after the computer pioneer and UK economy.
most important sources of data are relatively But instead of a rough estimate of how Bletchley Park code-breaker, The Alan Turing
new, taking the form of messages, updates many people watch a programme, Big Data Science minister David Willetts MP said a
and images posted to social networks; affords a pinpoint-accurate representation
Institute will focus on new ways of collecting, focus on Big Data would be crucial to ensuring
readings from sensors; GPS signals from of how long they watched, when they fast- organising and analysing data. the UK is able to compete with the world's
mobile phones and more. forwarded, what they tweeted. It’s claimed most technologically advanced countries.
that Netflix pushed ahead with its House of
Although healthcare and retail have been "Making the most of large and complex data
Cards series because their data found that The government committed to funding
among the most successful early adopters, is a huge priority for government as it has
the BBC original, programmes featuring some £42 million over the next five years for
the public sector will benefit hugely from the potential to transform public and private
Kevin Spacey, and films directed by David the project, with universities and other
better data management. sector organisations, drive research and
Fincher to be in high demand among interested parties encouraged to bid to
development, increase productivity and
Tom Heath from the Open Data Institute has its users. host the institute.
innovation, and enable market-changing
said that Big Data can help government cut
What’s beyond doubt is that companies Speaking in his Budget speech, Chancellor products and services," he said. "The new
costs, be more effective and better serve
won’t reap the full benefits of a transition George Osborne MP said: "I am determined data research centres will help the UK grasp
their citizens. During bad weather, a local
to Big Data unless they’re able to manage that our country is going to out-compete, these opportunities and get ahead in the
authority can blend existing data about
change effectively. Rather than accepting out-smart and out-do the rest of the world." global race."
services, such as road-gritting, with those
correlations blindly, data scientists will need
for at-risk groups, such as ‘meals on wheels’, The announcement was hailed as having the
theory to explain why the patterns are the
ensuring that different providers no longer potential to marry the needs of business with
way they are.
operate in silo. the ability of UK academia.
Companies will succeed using Big Data not
Public services are an often overlooked
simply because they have more or better
area for innovation. Emergency services
data, but because they have leadership teams
have already begun to look to Twitter to
that set clear goals, define what success
aid their efforts, but a more formal social
looks like, and ask the right questions.
media strategy can provide early warning
mechanisms after a major disaster has
taken place.
While newspaper reports are divided about
Big Data’s potential, the wider media has
already started to look to audience data to
cut through an ever-expanding marketplace.
26 www.wandisco.com 27THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
CASE STUDY
CHANNEL 4
GILL WHITEHEAD
DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE,
TECHNOLOGY AND INSIGHT AT CHANNEL 4
SANJEEVAN BALA
HEAD OF DATA PLANNING AND ANALYTICS AT CHANNEL 4
Gill Whitehead and Sanjeevan Bala lead the In January, we announced that 10 million
team at Channel 4 that applied Big Data to viewers had agreed to share information
about how they used the service. This was
better understand its audience and reinvent revolutionary within our industry and
the way in which people consume television. something we achieved by creating a value
exchange, so when we asked them to give us
information we gave them something back.
Across our online offering, we’re looking to
We started our Big Data journey three years enhance the user experience, both in terms
ago and at that time our team had two main of the viewer journey and at what points we
priorities. The first, and our main focus, was intervene to make it personal.
to use Big Data to build and strengthen direct
Big Data enables a collaborative relationship
relationships with our audience.
with clients and end users. We now offer
This is something that was never possible access to our complete archive, exclusive
before in linear television, but as TV became areas and the opportunity to watch premiers
connected to the internet we suddenly had – the value exchange must be right.
a vital return path to the consumer.
Amongst all this, we know that to customers
Our other priority was to deliver a return back Big Data is still new and many are concerned
to the business via Big Data which we did by about privacy – this is a challenge to many
creating new advertising products that delivered industries and not just our own. So we
more targeted advertising opportunities to created our viewer promise, fronted by Alan
clients which allowed us to charge a Carr, who could explain exactly why we ask
premium and deliver greater returns. for each piece of data and what we use it for.
We use Big Data across the business and we As part of our viewer promise, we don’t want
now have more direct marketing opportunities to experiment with anything that could be
that we didn’t have before. We’re also looking perceived as being invasive. Our relationship
at how Big Data can complement existing with our viewers remains our number one
research sources to support commissioning focus and Big Data must benefit that, rather
and scheduling of TV programmes. than risk putting it in jeopardy.
28 www.wandisco.com 29THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
British industry will need 1.25 million new
graduates in science, technology, engineering
CONCLUSION and maths by 2020 to maintain current
employment markets
“First came the binge, then came the hangover,” Britain must now capitalise on this ROYAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING
was the apt summary of a Bloomberg special opportunity. A recent study by EMC found
that while the average business will be
report on Big Data from June 2014.4 managing 50 times more information than it £42 million committed to The Alan Turing Institute
does today, the number of IT staff will only
rise by 50%. If that holds, then the UK won’t GEORGE OSBORNE MP MARCH 2014
The desire to scrutinise Big Data’s big be able to fill the 58,000 Big Data jobs that
promises has led to a fierce debate over the will be created by 2017.
extent of what it can achieve, with critics £73 million additional funding for public sector
We have to ensure training programmes are
emerging to claim sighting of a new Icarus
in place that will provide the skills needed analytics projects
flying too close to the sun.
to cope. This means having universities with DAVID WILLETS MP FEBRUARY 2014
A Science magazine report on the much- the facilities and courses to train the next
heralded Google Flu Trends project accused generation of data scientists and analysts.
the search giant of “big data hubris”,
The Alan Turing Institute promises to be a 58,000 more Big Data jobs to be created in the
suggesting that the flu-tracking service was
delivering consistently wayward estimates of
huge step in the right direction, but further UK by 2017, contributing £216 billion to the
details remain scarce. We need reassurances
actual infections.
that plans are in place to follow up on the UK economy
That followed a Harvard Business Review Chancellor’s promises, particularly with an DAVID WILLETS MP FEBRUARY 2014
article from December 2013, entitled “You election looming in 2015.
may not need Big Data after all”, while a
Creating Big Data apprenticeship schemes
Fortune magazine column the previous
will help address this skills shortage in UK Government could save £2 billion in fraud
month argued that the tools deployed to
analyse the datasets threaten to undermine
the short term, and we are delighted that detection, create 2,000 new jobs and generate
WANdisco is the first UK firm to offer these.
their credibility.
This is a move we hope will provide the £3.6 billion in savings
But as the dust settles, there is little doubt we blueprint for other companies to follow. SAS/CENTRE FOR ECONOMIC & BUSINESS RESEARCH 2013
will see a new wave of companies emerge,
It’s a choice we made because we
designed to help manage the realities of a
believe that the Big Data promise must
world built around data-driven solutions –
be substantiated by measureable action.
strategies built on intelligent and considered
Good intentions will not produce the skilled
analysis rather than number-crunching alone.
graduate workforce needed to make Britain’s
It would be churlish to deny the challenges, Big Data dream a reality, nor will they
but lessons will no doubt be learned from bring about the required changes in how
early failures. Despite the recent scepticism, companies use and think about data. The
smart businesses will be mindful of the time for talking has passed, and we must
opportunity presented by Big Data. It is now enter a phase of fiercely urgent action
providing an unprecedented insight into to place Britain at the heart of the worldwide
customers, sectors and trends. And even if phenomenon that is Big Data.
it cannot yet track the spread of disease, it is
helping hospitals save lives and offer greater
levels of care.
30
4
Bloomberg, “Buried in Big Data”. www.wandisco.com 31THINK BIG: BRITAIN’S DATA OPPORTUNITY
03
Both government and business
need to get better at explaining
the possibilities Big Data presents.
01
The information explosion fuelling 04
the Big Data movement will only The UK faces a technical skills
continue to grow as the size of
PREDICTIONS &
shortage and requires both
the digital universe expands. long-term and short-term
solutions to ensure a steady
RECOMMENDATIONS 02
stream of talent to help harness
Britain’s Big Data opportunity.
Big Data represents this generation’s
defining moment of competitive 05
advantage – with the potential to
WANdisco believes that Big Data is good for business. It is transforming UK government needs to follow
disrupt every industry and sector.
the way companies understand their customers, disrupting markets, up its commitment to The
and has the potential to eliminate discovery by chance. Alan Turing Institute by making
a considerable investment in
Britain has an enviable reputation for technological innovation and
further education and Big Data
with the right focus and investment, Big Data will become one of our
apprenticeships.
greatest success stories.
In Think Big: Britain’s Data Opportunity we have mapped out what
needs to be done for the UK to capitalise – here are our key findings.
32 www.wandisco.com 33ABOUT WANDISCO
WANdisco harnesses the power of 100% to
realise the possibilities of Big Data. Its unique
software helps the world’s most admired and
influential organisations to become stronger,
more agile and more competitive, and allows
innovators in every field to make the new
and important discoveries that will shape the
future of society.
WANdisco believes that, in an era of ubiquitous
information, an ability to store and query
data is the defining factor of success. Our
patented replication technology provides
organisations with 100% reliable, real-time
access to data with no downtime, data loss
or latency – making Big Data invincible.
By harnessing the strength, security and
stability of 100% certainty, WANdisco unlocks
the power of the possible, empowering our
customers to push the boundaries of their
ambition and benefit from the transformative
power of Big Data. Whether to enhance
efficiency or protect profits, boost revenue
or save lives, with WANdisco one thing is
certain: anything is possible.
34WWW.WANDISCO.COM
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