At first, a lot of people were writing about the fact that big data is inevitable. Then, even more people wrote about the big promise that big data holds for the business. And now, a lot more is being written about the big failures of big data. However, the topic that is least discussed – and what I believe should be top of mind – is the big secret to delivering big value from big data.

As they say – it’s about the journey and not the end. This is exactly right! Let’s look at the typical big data journey. Meet Joe, a big data enthusiast, the hero of my story. Everyone was talking about Hadoop. Joe wanted to see for himself what all the noise was about. Commodity hardware – check! Credit card – check! Hadoop downloaded – check! Self-help tutorials – check! Ready to go – check!

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