Greenplum's Jarrod Vawdrey on Hot Trends in Analytics

October 9, 2012 Guest Blogger

featured-cf-genericThis is a guest post from the SAS Voices blog written by Scott VanValkenburgh, Senior Director of Alliances at SAS.

SAS partners always bring valuable thought-leadership and industry perspectives to customer at events like Analytics 2012 and The Premier Business Leadership Series. Joining Deloitte and Teradata to talk about big data opportunities and trends is Jarrod Vawdrey, data scientist with Greenplum, a division of EMC.

Vawdrey will be hosting one of many roundtables and other special events going on at this year’s conference, giving attendees a chance to have one-on-one discussions and ask critical business questions.

Here’s a preview of what Vawdrey sees on the analytics horizon:

What do you see as the hottest trend(s) in analytics?

With out a doubt the hottest trend right now in Analytics is “big data.” For the analytics professional this is more than a new term, it is an exciting point of exponential growth in both data availability and technologies. The underlying process of creating value by asking questions and mining data for answers is still the same . The big difference (no pun intended) is that now in the big data era data and tools are available to answer these questions more accurately and timely, allowing an iterative process to emerge where insights are discovered with each iteration.

What are some challenges that analytics professionals are facing today?

A major challenge facing analytics professionals today is communicating the potential value that a company wide analytics initiative can create. This message is important because as data grows and questions become more complex so does the inefficiencies that siloed, one off projects create. One off projects lend themselves to significant time lags waiting for data extracts that pass thru multiple hands and further time working to understand preprocessing steps of data being used primarily in a BI capacity.

What we are finding more and more today is that having access to all the data at the source level allows analytics professionals to shorten the time to insights and iterate thru the process of question to answer multiples of times. By effectively messaging the breakdown and bringing in the tools necessary to effectively utilize a companies data, analytics professionals will be able to create more value for a wider range of stakeholders.

How will high-performance analytics (Big Data) affect our world?

High-performance analytics has and will continue to affect our world by allowing the availability of data insights and data driven applications that improve our quality of life. What started as a web based trend at companies like Google and Yahoo is now growing into all types of business from the automotive to food industries and everything in between. For the analytics professional this incorporation into our daily lives will continue to grow the data available and spur the initiatives that are creating the data tools and methodologies that are becoming available.

What career advice would you give to an analytics professional to grow in their field?

The field of data science is booming and I don’t see that trend changing any time soon. Since EMC Education Services created a class on data science about a year ago, over 2000 people have signed up. Study math, analytic modeling and grow in the field that is growing with you!

What will attendees learn by visiting the EMC Greenplum booth in the Exhibit Hall?

Stop by the our booth to learn about how Greenplum and SAS can help you with analytics infrastructure modernization. The world of analytics is changing and Greenplum has a unique offering through our Unified Analytics Platform that provides unparalleled scalability and performance. Learn how you can combine the co-processing of structured and unstructured data with a productivity engine that enables collaboration among your data team.

What are you most looking forward to at the Analytics Conference?

The Analytics Conference offers a location where SAS technologies and talented users come together to share ideas and create new new ones. We are looking forward to being apart of this to share both our experiences and knowledge and soak up what the SAS community has to offer.

About the Author

Biography

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