GARTNER 
By Analysts to Discuss the Role of Enterprise Architecture in the Age of Big Data at Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit, May 14-15 2012 in London, UK
STAMFORD, Conn., April 17, 2012-Enterprise architecture (EA) practitioners have a major role in ensuring their organizations maximize the business opportunities posed by big data, according to Gartner, Inc.
Big data makes organizations smarter and more productive by enabling people to harness diverse data types previously unavailable, and to find previously unseen opportunities. However, Gartner analysts said big data poses big challenges as well - and that's where enterprise architects can help. As navigators of strategic change, the task for EA practitioners is to chart the right course for big data across the most critical dimensions of the organization: business, culture, talent and technology.
"Traditional approaches to EA are significantly impacted by big data," said David Newman, research vice president at Gartner. "For the EA practitioner, the balance shifts from a focus on optimization and standardization within the organization, to lightweight approaches that focus on harmonization and externalization across the broader enterprise ecosystem. Big data disrupts traditional information architectures - from a focus on data warehousing (data storage and compression) toward data pooling (flows, links, and information shareability). In the age of big data, the task for the EA practitioner is clear: Design business outcomes that exploit big data opportunities inside and outside the organization.
Gartner has identified four critical impacts of big data, and how enterprise architects can address these issues:
Impact: Big data enables decision makers to spot patterns quickly across different data types, but requires a data-savvy business strategy to achieve competitive advantage
Enterprise architects should educate leaders about potential big data opportunities now readily available through start-small, cost-effective analytics and pattern recognition tools and techniques, but also explain the risk factors (such as data privacy, regulatory and legal challenges). Practitioners should also explore the increasing number of public datasets now available through open APIs, and use these for sentiment analysis (e.g., mining social media feeds), location-based services (using publicly available telemetry data) or to design context-aware applications.
Impact: Big data opportunities expose internal silos that leaders must address through proper incentives and metrics which encourage data sharing and improve trust
Organizations may have the best technology and the best people. But if the internal culture is plagued by silos and lack of data sharing, they are less likely to achieve success with big data. Addressing cultural challenges requires creating the right incentives to build trusted sources of enterprise information. Enterprise architects should conduct stakeholder analyses to identify the cultural roadblocks to data sharing, and prepare mitigation strategies and communications that overcome perceived obstacles. For instance, EA practitioners can advocate open innovation efforts that will enable customers to participate directly in product development, which will begin to overcome silo-centric behaviors and force more cross-team data sharing.
Impact: Big data exposes talent gaps, introduces new interdisciplinary roles, and forces organizations to attract and retain data-savvy business specialists and managers with deep analytical skills
A major challenge is how organizations will attract and retain the right talent that exploits big data. Among the most sought-after role is the data scientist - a role that combines domain skills in computer science, mathematics and statistical expertise. EA practitioners can help their organization address this challenge by producing a resource planning deliverable that identifies big data skill gaps across business teams. Practitioners should also assess resource needs among information infrastructure teams, and identify technical gaps when supporting big data solutions.
Impact: Big data requires technology specialists to acquire and apply tools, techniques and architectures for analyzing, visualizing, linking and managing big datasets
EA practitioners must help their organization understand how best to design and implement big data solutions. Careful planning must be undertaken to determine the best tools and techniques for analyzing complex datasets. These include skills in statistics, machine learning, natural-language processing and predictive modeling. In addition, practitioners must help teams understand how to use big data visualizations techniques, such as tag clouds, clustergrams, history flows, animations and infographics. Teams should use low-cost, open-source tools in early pilots to demonstrate the feasibility of big data projects.
Additional information is provided in the Gartner report "Big Data Disruptions Tamed With Enterprise Architecture." The report is available on Gartner's web site at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1964716.
Gartner analysts will discuss how to manage EA in the nexus of change at the Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit 2012, taking place from May 14 to 15 in the UK, London, and in the U.S. fromMay 23 to 24 in National Harbor, MD. For further information about the Summit in London, please visit www.gartner.com/eu/ea. For further information about the Summit in Maryland, please visit www.gartner.com/us/eaAdditional information from the event will be shared on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Gartner_incand using #GartnerEA.
About Gartner Enterprise Architecture Summit 2012
A unique confluence of disruptive trends from the nexus of
cloud, social, big data and mobile technologies provide an
unprecedented opportunity for EA practitioners to deliver
business value from EA differently than ever before. The
Summit can help organizations navigate the nexus of change
to deliver business value, growth and transformation, but
also master their core EA competencies that are essential
for EA success. Gartner analysts will also discuss the
future of EA and how to leverage leading edge EA practices
in the organization.
Contacts:
Christy Pettey
Gartner
+1 408 468 8312
christy.pettey@gartner.com
Rob van der Meulen
Gartner
+44 0 1784 267892
rob.vandermeulen@gartner.com
About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is a valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 11,500 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,500 associates, including 1,250 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries.www.gartner.com.
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