Take Away ThoughtsOn Big Data

June 2012Bob GourleyCTOlabs.com

Some Context You Can UseA Summary and Discussion of Big Data Presentations at the USGIF

Technology Days

How Much Data Is there?

All of this afternoon’s presentations reminded me of a quote that tried to spell out how big the universe is:

"Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is.

From the Hitchhikers Guide

• CTOlabs projected in 2008 that the hype over Cloud Computing was headed to overtake the hype over SOA, and it did, in 2010.

• The hype over Big Data is showing signs of a faster growth, but we are unsure at this point at what point the hype will overtake that of cloud computing.

• Big reason to track this: It underscores that we need to decide what we mean by this term and not let others decide for us.

Cross-Over in Hype

Big Data• This is not business as usual.

• And this is not just lots of data.

• It is not just exponential growth of data.

• It is new ways of making sense over data that require changes to existing architectures.

• Big Data, the term, in its current use, implies many other things, like:

• Apache Hadoop Framework

• Commodity hardware leveraging Moore’s law

• Infinite scalability

• No data temples

• Caution: Big Data, the term, may soon lose all meaning.

I will define Big Data Now

What Is Big Data?

• Big Data is a term applied to data sets whose size is beyond the ability of legacy approaches to capture, manage and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time. Big data sizes are a constantly moving target.

• For the enterprise CTO, speaking of “big data” implies the need for a strategy for dealing with sensemaking over large quantities of data.

More Context Follows

Big Data• Think of challenges facing humanity: They all need solutions. • But first we have to address a key problem:

• Old ways of doing IT must change. When you hear the phrase “Big Data” think of this need for change.

Ability for humans to analyze data

Amount of data

to Analyze Area of Need (and opportunity)

The ability to collect, parse, analyze machine data in real time, whether on premise or in the cloud, will continue to grow.

Ignite Style Presentations• Introductory Keynote – “Big Data: Friend or Foe” by Barry Barlow, Director, OnlineGEOINT Services,

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency• Management of Multi-Terabyte Video Files in Broadcast Television – Steve Atkinson, Director Federal Sales,

Front Porch Digital Inc.• 3,000,000 km2 of Satellite Imagery Every Day: Finding the Relevant Pixels – Luke Barrington, CTO,

Tomnod; and John Lucier, Senior Manager Analysis Offerings, DigitalGlobe• The Value of Stream Computing in Big Data – Gabe Chang, Senior Consulting Client IT Architect, IBM• Big Data: Security and Scale in the Era of On-Demand IT – MG (Ret.) John M. Custer, Director, Federal

Missions and Programs, EMC2• Intelligence Products in the Age of Big Data – George Demmy, CTO, TerraGo• Data Intensity and Datacenter Consolidation via Federated Cloud “Big Data” – Eng Lim Goh Ph.D., CTO and

Senior VP, Silicon Graphics International Corp.• A Big Ocean: Handling High Volume Bathymetry – Michael Henheffer, Senior Software Developer Marine

Division, CARIS• Big Features: A WISE Approach to Scalable Geospatial ISR Fusion – Joshua Lieberman, Senior Manager,

Deloitte FAS LLP• OMAR: Open Source Software for Big Data – Mark R. Lucas, Principal Scientist, RadiantBlue Technologies• Interacting with Big Data using Mobile Devices – Kumar Navular, Director, NextGeneration Products,

DigitalGlobe• Predictive Analytics in the Cloud: The Art of the Possible – by Anthony Quartararo, President and CEO,

Spatial Networks Inc.• Big Data: The Diversity Factor – Dan Quinn, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Progressive Technology

Federal Systems Inc.• Data Harmonization Through the Use of Complex Event Processors – Dennis Groseclose, President,

TransVoyant• Standardizing Web Interfaces to Distribute Wide Area Motion Imagery – Rahul Thakar, VP of Technology,

PIXIA Corp.• Discussant – Bob Gourley, Chief Technology Officer, Crucial Point LLC

Recap• Big Data Friend or Foe: Barry Barlow says there is lots of data. Can't analyze it all with people.

Mentioned MapStory. RecordedFuture. Hadoop.

• Big Data in Television: DBX is the current format. TB size files. Lessons regarding metadata and workflow relevant to our world. Suggested use of “proxy workflows.”

• Finding Relevant Pixels: New crowdsourcing methods of review.

• Stream and Big Data: Interconnected world with fast moving data, analyze in stream.

• Game-Changing Tech for Data Explosion: Value comes from analytics. Storage nothing, ot a tsunami,it is a rising tide.. Use Hadoop. Put compute into storage.

• Intel reporting in the age of Big Data: Data must be operatioinalized

• Big Ocean: Bathymetry data smartly handled.

• Big Features: Context for collaboration while working big data is crtical.

• OMAR- Open Source for Big Data: These guys are working really BIG data, in a way that is smooth and easy to users.

• Big Data and Mobile: Well engineerd solutions can make it incredibly easy on users.

• Data Intensity and Data Center Consolidation: Think BIG. Keep data where it is. Have a vision.

• Predictive Analytics in the Cloud: Know your challenge. User experience is everything.

• Activity-Based Intelligence: Must engineer for ABI. Sometimes bring data together.

• Global Standardization of Web Interfaces for WAMI: Web services for MI

• Diverse Requirements: Says Big Data Not New. Good ways to present to users.

Some discussion items

• Presenters at times used varying definitions of the term “big data”

• We can’t command that the term always be used the way the tech community uses it. But we can push back whenever someone decides to invent their own definition.

What To Do Now:

• Sign up for the Government Big Data Newsletter

• Send me an e-mail, at bob @ crucialpointllc.com

• Or sign up at CTOvision.com

• Leverage the Apache Hadoop framework. Download open source distribution of CDH4 from Cloudera

• Share your lessons learned, and seek lessons from others on your Big Data use.

• Be precise on how you use the term, or expect its meaning to disappear

Backup Slides

Big Data Use Cases in Government

• Security: rapid real time analysis of all relevant data

• Rapid return of geospatial data

• Location based push of data: ads now, but watch for more

• Real time return of relevant search: Google, Cloudera and USA.gov

• Real time suggestion of topics: Google, Cloudera and USA.gov

• Bioinformatics: Human Genome, Hadoop

• Bioinformatics: Patient location, treatment, outcomes

Big Data and the Special Case of Cyber

• Cyber security has long generated large quantities of data.

• Enterprises need access to all the data to look for evidence of coordinated/sophisticated adversary action. Old approaches do not enable that.

• New CDH4 enabled “Big Data” approaches enable “Enterprise Security Intelligence” solutions.

• Includes non-cyber data. Rapid computer emergency response needs all source data along with the cyber data.

New approaches to cyber security analysis, including incident detection, incident response, forensics and remediation, require “Big Data” thinking and designs built to bring all the data together.

The Intent of the Government Big Data Solutions Award

Established to help facilitate exchange of best practices, lessons learned and creative ideas for solutions to hard data challenges

Special focus on solutions built around Apache Hadoop framework

Nominees and award winners to be written up in CTOlabs.com technology reviews

Award meant to help generate exchange of lessons learned

We established a team of judges, asked them to consider mission impact as primary criteria, and solicited award nominations via sites frequented by government IT

professionals and solution providers.

The Government Needs More Agility*

The government can rapidly benefit from the lessons of high tech by being a faster follower, especially when it comes to Big Data constructs

Thesis: If the Big Data community understands more about federal missions, challenges and successes, we can improve the speed and effectiveness of federal solutions.

“High tech runs three-times faster than normal businesses. And the government runs three-times slower than normal businesses.

So we have a nine-times gap” – Andy Grove

*Among other needs

Most active fed solution areas:

Federal integrators: Spending internal research and development funds to create prototypes and full solutions relevant to fed missions

DoD and IC agencies: Using Big Data approaches to solve “needle in the haystack” and “connect the dots” problems

National Labs: Bioinformatics solutions have been put in place by federal researchers

OMB and GSA: Ensuring sharing of lessons and solutions. Key exemplars around web search methods. Solutions inside government agencies and on citizen facing properties

Big Data solutions are already making a difference in government service to citizens. Highlighting some of this virtuous work is a goal of our Government Big Data Solutions

Award.

Top Nominees for 2011 USA Search: Best in class hosted search services over more than 400 gov sites.

Great use of CDH3.

GCE Federal: Cloud-based financial management solutions. Apache Hadoop, Hbase, Lucene for Dept of Labor.

PNNL Bioinformatics: Leading researcher Dr. Taylor of PNNL is advancing understanding of health, biology, genetics and computing using Apache Hadoop/MapReduce/HBase.

SherpaSurfing: Use of CDH as a cybersecurity solution. Ingest packet capture in any format, analyze trends, find malware, alert.

US Department of State: Bureau of Counselor Affairs. Large data with important applications for citizen service and national security.

Each of these are making a difference for government missions right now.

USA Search Program of General Services Administration’s (GSA) Office of Citizen

Services and Information Technologies.

Hosted search services for USA.gov and over 500 other government websites.

Solves big data challenges with open source capabilities.

CDH3 since fall 2010. HDFS, Hadoop and Hive used in cost effective, resilient, scalable solution.

Search Results. Search Suggestions. Trend analysis. Analytic dashboards.

Bottom Line: USA Search brings the best of the open source community to multiple government missions, including direct citizen support

Some Requests

• Sign up for the Government Big Data Newsletter at:

• http://j.mp/ctonews

• Watch for the 2012 Government Big Data Solutions Award

• Stay in touch!

Thank You!

Please give feedback and find more info at:

CTOvision.com