Big Data Strategy National Emergency
KRS Murthy
NOTE: I am sure that I have appropriately titled this particular blog. It is really alarming and high time that our country leaders take this seriously. Please read on, act on it and contact me for any discussion.
The Big Data Strategy is not limited to a particular company or enterprise one or few products or services. Conglomerates may have multiple product lines or lines of businesses made up of many business units, related or unrelated. Big data strategy could be in silos if the businesses of the conglomerate are not related. For mutually related business units, an integrated strategy would be appropriate.
Industry or vertical wide big data strategy would apply for industry associations with many companies in that industry are members. The big data strategy would encompass issues and commonalities between the member companies of the industry association.
A national level or state / province level big data strategy is very important to ensure the prudent big data policies drive the big data strategy. It would also be helpful to revisit the national, state or province level strategy from big data perspective.
Let us take examples of national or state / province level big data strategy. For example, energy department in a country like USA needs big data strategy, to leverage and exploit to the full extent the immense power of big data, not only in the legacy energy technologies and infrastructure, and surely in alternative or green technologies. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in the energy generation, transmission and surely in the distribution segments, fully incorporating smart grid features with monitoring devices in residences, commercial buildings, industrial buildings and also military building and campuses. WSN embedding is pertinent in outdoor lighting, street lighting and lighting in highways, freeways, parks, airports etc.
The WSN would generate data every minute, hour, day, week, month and the whole year, needing big data methodologies to derive the best value for prudent actionable and decision knowledge.
Similarly, the state / province and national departments where big data strategy would be needed include: Department of Transportation, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of the Interior, Department of Commerce, the intelligence agencies like CIA and FBI, the difference defense departments, Department of Education, Homeland Security, Department of Finance, Department of Treasury, the list too long to list them all.
Whether it is for a company or enterprise, industry vertical, state or national agencies and departments, the strategic approach would always start at policy level. Big data policy may be revisited,
and from it big data procedures are developed, trickling logically down to processes at different levels. A reverse big data value chain analysis from processes up to procedures and further up to policies would also be appropriate. Each big data policy item may generate and demand multiple big data procedures pertinent to different business units, departments and functional entities. For example, the human resources, finance and accounting, the supply chain, purchase, inventory, shipping, R&D, engineering, manufacturing and assembly, marketing, sales and business development, customer service and field operations would derive and conform to higher level big data processes and procedures in terms of big data value. Even the ISO and other industry standard compliance would have big data dimension or aspect to them.
Industry wide supply chain dependency should have, along with supply chain standards compliance and bench marking, big data strategy, procedures and processes fully integrated and monitored, measured and bench marked with continuous improvement leveraging and exploiting on the big data power.
Big data fully integrated at strategy, policy procedure and processes, when prudently and diligently implemented and exploited will be pivotal for national competitiveness.
Big data has the power to help exhaustively utilize every point of monitoring, measurement, trending, decision making, control and continuous improvement, which exhaustiveness never existed in the human technological history.
I would urge companies, enterprises, industry verticals, industry associations and governments quickly build their big data capability and infrastructure, or else they may be left behind. Even countries not in the international technological league can benefit from the big data revolution.
Training many types of big data professionals is the way to lay the foundation for countries to enter and competitively move ahead t the international level. To be able to have enough big data workforce to encompass all aspects and functions is also very important, because a proper balance to cover all professional categories needed in big data implementation is very vital and prudent.
To be able to conceive, design, develop and market variety of big data computing, processing, manipulation, streaming and staging, storage, querying, statistical tool development and augmentation, data science, business intelligence analysis, visualization, networking and communication for synchronous and asynchronous processes would require professionals of different technology skills and expertise, at the same time business, management and support professionals properly trained for their respective professions and functions.
Today, focus is mostly on developers, coders, data base professionals and architects. The companies, industries, industry associations, states, provinces and nations seem to be limited to a small section of the needed talent development. The primary reason is that most companies, industries and governments do not understand big data technology, tools, needed professionals, training and continuing education, especially strategic level.
Country like USA needs a Big Data Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Big Data Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). USA can not repeat appointing novices for these types of very important positions, as it has done in the recent years. To be a CIO or CSO requires decades track record in similar functions. Especially to be a CIO or CSO at USA country level, the person needs track record at large enough level to merit being and functioning at national level. Appointing poorly qualified and intellectually ill equipped individuals driven only by political motivation surely indicates lack of vision at decision making level, as viewed internationally.
As most of the appointments at many levels in USA are politically motivated and big posts are politically appointed, with very little regard to experience, wisdom and track record, I am particularly afraid that USA will miss the boat again in big data, as it has already missed areas like manufacturing, automobiles and alternation energy, finance and banking, as only examples, becoming completely and irrevocably dependent on China. Similar dependency, even though to a much lesser extent is true for software outsourcing to India, including many vital software and business process functions.
The educational institutions, at school, college, university levels and also the Department of Education need to act urgently to train students, along with a supplemental continuing education program, large number of professionals in the areas already listed by me. Based on my initial high level estimate, I strongly feel that the universities need to act very fast, as the man power requirement to fill the big data professionals needed is so large that USA may lag behind, and living a void for other countries to fill them, thus further increasing dependence of USA on other countries.
I am currently estimating the required number of trained professionals for different categories.
I will be open to co-opting team members in this estimating endeavor.
