by Thor Olavsrud

10 Real-World Big Data Deployments That Will Change Our Lives

News
Mar 25, 20136 mins

The amount of data in the world is increasing exponentially, doubling every 18 months. Here are 10 real-world big data deployments you may not have realized were driven by big data.

There’s a lot of hype surrounding big data. But it’s not hype that the amount of data in the world is increasing exponentially, doubling every 18 months. And use of that data is starting to touch nearly every aspect of our lives, whether we realize it or not. Here are 10 real-world big data deployments you may not have realized were driven by big data.

Netflix

Netflix

Netflix has become the largest provider of commercial streaming video in the U.S., with 29 million streaming video customers. It has also become a sponge for data—what users watch, when they’re watching, where they’re watching and what device they’re using. It has data on when you rewind or fast-forward, when you pause and when you stop watching a show or movie entirely. Now Netflix is beginning to produce its own original programming and it’s leveraging all that data to do it. It used its data to lead it to license BBC miniseries “House of Cards” for a remake. And it correlated fans of actor Kevin Spacey and director David Fincher to fans of the original, leading it to hire them for the program.

Hydro One Networks

Hydro One Networks

Hydro One delivers electricity to homes and businesses across the province of Ontario. It owns and operates Ontario’s 29,000km high-voltage transmission network and a 123,000km low-voltage distribution system that serves about 1.3 million customers. Hydro One is using geospatial and visual analytics software from Space-Time Insight to improve the health and reliability of its transmission and distribution assets. The system helps asset managers make informed decisions about asset performance over time, asset replacement strategies and asset maintenance requirements. The solution integrates data and functionality from many different systems including SAP ECC, SAP BW, GIS systems, and real-time data to provide a complete view of Hydro One’s assets.

DPR Construction

DPR Construction

DPR Construction is the general contractor for the $1.5 billion UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay, the first medical center that will be built from the ground up in decades. DPR is using 3D technology from Autodesk to give its designers the ability to integrate data on air flow, building orientation, floor spacing, environmental resiliency, building performance, etc. into a single virtual model where the information interacts in real-time, allowing architects, designers and construction teams to understand, visualize and interpret hundreds of millions of data markers together in a fully operational environment.