Common Big Data Pain Points for Manufacturers

This article is the second in an editorial series with a goal to provide strategic direction for enterprise thought leaders in the manufacturing sector for ways of leveraging the big data technology stack in support of analytics proficiencies designed to work more independently and effectively in today’s climate of striving to increase the value of corporate data assets.

In last week’s article, we introduce the ways in which manufacturers are making inroads toward the adoption of the big data technology stack. The complete insideBIGDATA Guide to Manufacturing is available for download from the insideBIGDATA White Paper Library.

Common Big Data Pain Points for Manufacturers

With the rise of big data, global manufacturers recognize the importance of data as the new currency and as a competitive differentiator. Data is being created and consumed at rates never before seen and this effect especially is prevalent in the manufacturing sector. With this data explosion, manufacturers are recognizing the need for more than traditional, structured systems to take control of their data. But there are significant pain points in getting up to speed to take advantage of the data deluge. For instance, many manufacturers don’t have access to the tools that they need for deploying big data solutions—to get results faster, to perform required calculations—regardless of what they’re manufacturing.

At a high-level, many manufacturers share common pain points when undergoing a big data initiative. Here are a few of most frequently mentioned:

• Needing to crunch more data in less time Keep your organization ahead of the data deluge so that your decisions are based on information from the analytics. Even the most advanced big data solution will not benefit an organization if it takes too long to get insights.
• Ensuring the right people have access to big data results – If the right people do not have access to the right tools to deliver insights, it will not matter how much data you have.
• Effectively handling data quality and performance – The goal must be to build a big data infrastructure that aligns with your business goals and delivers actionable, real-time business insights that you can trust.
• Needing big data solutions that scale to fit your business – To get the right insights into the right hands at the right time, you must have a flexible, scalable big data infrastructure that can reliably integrate front-end systems with back-end systems— and keep your business up and running.
• Being able to expand your company’s data handling strategy by having the ability to analyze various types of data including traditional structured data, but also newly available unstructured and semi-structured data sources.

If a manufacturer wants to get started with big data to address their own set of pain points and build a use case in their environment, one good path toward success is the Dell QuickStart for Cloudera Hadoop program which offers an effective point-of-entry for enterprises to begin managing and analyzing data. An all-in-one system designed to reduce the complexity of deploying, configuring, and managing Hadoop systems, includes the hardware, software and services needed to deliver a Hadoop cluster that will start organizations on a proof-of-concept to begin working with big data. With this program, Dell is building on its deep expertise and relationships in working with Cloudera® and Intel®. The solution represents a unique collaboration in the big data ecosystem to collectively deliver an easy and affordable way to get started with Hadoop.

Dell QuickStart for Cloudera Hadoop enables organizations to quickly engage in Hadoop testing, development and proof of concept work. Through the combination of Dell PowerEdge servers with Intel® Xeon® processors, Cloudera Enterprise Basic Edition and Dell Professional Services, organizations can quickly deploy Hadoop and enable development and application teams to test business processes, data analysis methodologies and operational needs against a fully functioning Hadoop cluster.

If you prefer, the complete insideBIGDATA Guide to Manufacturing is available for download in PDF from the insideBIGDATA White Paper Library, courtesy of Dell and Intel.