Lee Feigenbaum of Cambridge Semantics recently wrote, “The best thing about the Big Data hype in pharma is how effectively it’s shed light on all of the Small Data problems the industry is facing. The roots of the Big Data movement in pharma were innocent enough: challenges in storage, data access, and data analytics that organizations started seeing with shifts toward high-throughput screening and massive genomics data sets. But as Big Data became more and more mainstream, the range of business challenges that got slapped with the “Big Data” label started ranging further and further afield. Industry analysts noticed this quickly, redefining Big Data in terms of the three (or four) Vs–not just volume but also variety, velocity, and variability. Others have been quick to follow. At a recent conference on data-driven drug development, speaker after speaker stood up to talk about their approach to Big Data, and each speaker immediately qualified that they were speaking about the variety of data, rather than the volume of data.” Read more

Anders Gustafsson, CEO of Zebra Technologies recently posed the question, is the Internet of Things all hype, or is it a reality? He writes, “The discussion around [the Internet of Things] typically has been about the possibilities — the big ‘what ifs,’ particularly as it relates to consumers. There are many interesting ideas that will offer new conveniences and life-changing applications. We talk about ‘what if’ we could connect the Internet to the things in our everyday life. At the 2013 International CES last week, we heard a lot about Internet-connected crockpots, washing machines and other home appliances. In a nutshell, it’s about using data to make objects smarter and more responsive to our needs.” Read more