There are many different definitions of the term “big data,” some of them reasonable, others not so much. However, the overriding issue for many data professionals, especially those who use more traditional data management tools, is confusion about what to do with big data and how to get the most out of it.
To help clear up this uncertainty, Craig Mullins will present “Going Beyond Relational: An Introduction of Big Data Concepts for Relational Users” at Data Summit 2016 in NYC. Mullins is the president and principal consultant of Mullins Consulting, Inc.
“Big data is not a specific technology, or even a set of practices and procedures,” Mullins said. “It is the end result of an intersecting series of changes in technology that enable organizations to extract insight from their data. I will elaborate on this and talk about the impact of these trends on IT and data management professionals.”
He will provide an overview of how NoSQL, Hadoop, and Spark can contribute to big data and analytics projects during his presentation.
As data management professionals it is important to understand the technologies that their organization and management may choose to adopt, Mullins explained.
“It is also important to understand the use cases for each of these technologies, at least at a high level,” Mullins said. “There are reasons to use, for example, NoSQL on a new big data project. But there are reasons why good old relational and SQL can work just as well depending on the requirements. We will examine some of the issues that can help attendees understand which technologies make the most sense when and where.”
He sees the usage of Spark as a big trend that will continue to permeate the industry in the future.
“Usage of Spark is increasing but many relational technicians don’t know what it is … or why it is important,” Mullins said. “They can get a high-level understanding of Spark at my session without all of the in-depth technical details that you might get – and tend to forget – in a long Spark session.”
He is looking forward to attending Data Summit and talking to others engaged in the management of data and optimization of their data strategy.
“This will be my first time attending the conference and I hope to learn a lot from attending … as well as to share my thoughts with attendees at my session,” Mullins said.
Mullins will present “Going Beyond Relational: An Introduction of Big Data Concepts for Relational Users” at Data Summit on Tuesday, May 10, at 3:15 pm at the New York Hilton Midtown in NYC. To register, go here.