Big Data is “nonsense”: Dr Robin Bloor

Posted by: Yellowfin Team

Known for his unique and controversial views on the business analytics industry, respected technology analyst, Dr Robin Bloor, has described the terms ‘Big Data’ and ‘Data Scientist’ as “nonsense” in a recent interview with Business Intelligence (BI) vendor Yellowfin.

But why does Bloor hold this position on the industry’s most prevalent topic? Watch the video recording of the interview to find out.

Interview questions

*Your keynote had an interesting title – Big Data with a question mark after it. Are you a Big Data skeptic?

*Where do you see the consumerization of BI fitting in regards to the emergence of Big Data and new data sources?

*From your keynote speech, can we conclude that you believe the term “democratization of data” is invalid?

*Broadly speaking, why do you think that increasing numbers of organizations are turning to BI to improve operations and strategic planning?

*Gartner have talked a lot recently about the concept of Governed Data Discovery. They claim it is essentially the future direction of the reporting and analytics industry. What’s your view?

About Bloor’s Think Tank 2014 Keynote: Big Data?

Dr Robin Bloor was the first keynote speaker at Think Tank 2014 – Yellowfin’s annual global BI conference. Bloor’s Big Data? presentation first examined the technology trends in IT, looking back over decades, to explain how we got where we are today. It then reviewed the dramatic changes that have been occurring in computer technology – particularly hardware – to explain why, suddenly, everyone is obsessed with Big Data. Finally it explored the consumerization of BI.

Bloor’s presentation covered topics including:

  • The ‘Big Data curve’ and what it means
  • Disruption in computer hardware technology
  • Technology revolutions from the mainframe to the Internet of Things
  • Data flow and software architecture
  • The analogy of the biological system to BI
  • The ‘Data Scientist’
  • Latencies in BI and why they matter
  • The consumerization of BI

About Robin Bloor

An in-demand speaker and author, Bloor has published many papers and several books, including his best-selling business book The Electronic Bazaar: From the Silk Road to the eRoad, which was featured as book of the week by Times and referred to as "a classic" by Publisher’s Weekly.

Bloor is the Chief Analyst at Bloor Research, a US media savvy enterprise IT analysis, research and publishing firm he co-founded in 2010. He was also the founder (in 1989) of the UK technology analysis company Bloor Research.

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