Data is the future of business; we’ve all heard it a million times by now, but the hype cycle keeps on spinning. With each of us now leaving an unending trail of data in our wake, it was only a matter of time before someone worked out how to make money from it. Throw unlimited processing power and storage into the mix — thank you very much, cloud computing — add a sprinkle of artificial intelligence (AI) and, hey presto, we’re all living in the future. If only anyone other than largest corporations on earth knew how to make any sense of the ocean of data in which we now swim. In fact, any business can. More about KPIs than rampaging AIs, step back from the daydreams about the Star Trek transporter or the cybernetic singularity and big data is really about improving mundane, but important, business processes. “It’s a question of operational intelligence, really,” said Phil Ryan, customer relationship management solutions manager at Egro Group. … [Read more...] about Betting the business on big data
Report on big data
Dutch gov’t can keep Big Data law in current form, court rules
The government does not have to withdraw its new law on the Dutch intelligence and security services in its current form, the court ruled on Tuesday in, NU.nl reports. Thet, also called the Big Data- and data mining law by opponents, was implemented on May 1st. It gives the Netherlands' two intelligence and security services more power. The biggest change is that the AIVD and MIVD are now able to e. The services are allowed to perform hacks more often, and on a larger range - where the services could previously only hack a specific suspect, the new law allows them to reach the suspect by hacking the computer of a housemate, for example. The new law also gives the services the capability of storing DNA material for investigations. The expansion of powers is balanced with more supervision on the services. After a majority of Dutch in a referendum in March, the government to the law. These changes include that the Dutch services can only share data with … [Read more...] about Dutch gov’t can keep Big Data law in current form, court rules
Trump Tweets Early on Jobs Data, and Wall Street Takes the Hint
There’s a reason presidents and policy makers carefully avoid saying a single word about important economic numbers before they’re officially released. Traders react to even the slightest hint, moving markets and causing turmoil on incomplete information.That’s what happened Friday morning when President Donald Trump tweeted a big hint about the monthly employment numbers, one of the most closely watched pieces of government data."Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning," he wrote at 7:21 a.m. in Washington.To many traders it was clear that Trump was signaling the numbers would be good. There was a noticeable reaction in some markets, with the dollar climbing in the wake of the tweet as benchmark Treasury yields extended their advance to new highs for the day.And indeed, when the official numbers were released about an hour later, they were very good: With the addition of a higher-than-expected 223,000 jobs in May, unemployment dropped to … [Read more...] about Trump Tweets Early on Jobs Data, and Wall Street Takes the Hint
Why GDPR Isn’t Going To Radically Change Big Data
The deluge of e-mails in your inbox requesting your consent makes it feel like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is going to change everything and that no one will be able to gather data without our consent anymore – the truth, however, is much more complicated. For a start it is likely that many of the e-mails for consent that you are receiving are either unnecessary or unlawful. Unnecessary because they already have your valid consent, or illegal because they have never had your consent to communicate with you. GDPR is a great move forward for our digital rights – especially as a tool to help increase collective bargaining power, by specifically allowing class actions and third party representation, and providing for meaningful individual recourse when things go wrong, notably the rights to rectification and erasure, coupled with increased fines for those breaching the law based primarily on a percentage of turnover. All this means that companies will be … [Read more...] about Why GDPR Isn’t Going To Radically Change Big Data
Israeli big data co ScyllaDB raises $10m
Israeli real-time big data database company ScyllaDB today announced that it has closed a $10 million Series C funding round led by TLV Partners. Previous investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, Magma Venture Partners, and Western Digital also participated in the round. This latest round brings ScyllaDB’s total funding to $35 million. Shahar Tzafrir of TLV Partners will join the company’s board of directors, Globes reports. Tzafrir said, “ScyllaDB has quickly built a thriving community of users who recognize the architectural advantages of the Scylla database. Beyond its distinct performance advantages, Scylla is unique in its ability to fully exploit available hardware resources, leading to a dramatic reduction in TCO. That’s one of the reasons so many organizations are migrating to Scylla from Cassandra, MySQL, Hbase, MongoDB, Redis and others. We are very excited to join the team and to guide the company as it moves forward.” ScyllaDB … [Read more...] about Israeli big data co ScyllaDB raises $10m