Suggestion: Enlarge and print out this graphic on 8 1/2 x 11 (or A4 outside of the US) paper. When “big data” sales people come calling, hand them a copy of it and ask them to outline the relevancy of any of the shown data to your products and business model.
Don’t get me wrong, there are areas seen and unforeseen, where big data is going to have unimaginable impacts.
However, big data solutions will be sold where appropriate and where not. The only way to protect yourself is to ask the same questions of big data sales people as you would of any vendor selling you more conventional equipment for your business. What is the cost? What benefits do you gain? How does it impact your profit margins? Will it result in new revenue streams and what has been the experience of others with those streams?
Or do you want to be YouTube and still not making a profit? If you like churn perhaps so but churn is a business model for hedge fund managers for the most part.
I first saw this in a tweet by Veronique Milsant.