According to CompTIA research, nearly 8 in 10 executives agree: "If we could harness all of our data, we would be a much stronger business." Add to that Gartner’s estimate there will be a need for 4.4 million IT jobs globally to support big data by 2015, and there’s not enough talent in the industry to fill this need. The certification and training industry has a big opportunity here. So what can you do to help train the next generation of IT and business professionals? Beyond database administrators and analysts, what are the new breed of skills needed to manage huge volumes of big data – both structured and unstructured? Hear highlights from CompTIA's Big Data research, presented at Colloquium 2014.

1. Big Data: Are You Ready
for this Growing Market?
Tim Herbert
VP, Research & Market Intelligence
CompTIA
therbert@comptia.org

2. On Tap for Today: Learning Objectives
Objective 1: framing the discussion
Objective 2: understanding needs
Objective 3: assessing opportunities

3. What is Big Data?
…it’s ‘complicated’

4. Big Data: It’s All Relative
Consensus Definition: the 3 Vs
A volume, velocity and variety of data that exceeds an organization’s storage,
compute and management capacity for accurate and timely decision-making.
(Source: The MetaGroup)
Emerging add-ons to the definition: veracity and value
Most companies operate somewhere along the data continuum

5. Users Become More Familiar with Concepts
Associated with Big Data
Familiarity with Big Data Concepts
2012
76%
2013
55%
45%
Google Search Trending
Cloud Computing
Big Data
BYOD
100
80
60
40
24%
20
Somewhat
Familiar / Not
That Familiar
NET Familiar
0
2011
2012
2013

6. Why the Interest in Big Data?
Top 5 Consequences of Ineffectively Managing/Using Data
1
Wasted time that could be spent in other areas of the business
2
Internal confusion over priorities
3
Inefficient or slow decision-making / Lack of agility
4
Inability to effectively assess staff performance
5
Lost sales
8 in 10 executives agree (NET) to the statement:
"If we could harness all of our data, we'd be a much stronger business”

7. Data Management and Utilization Framework

8. Challenge #1: Lack of a Unified Data Strategy
Structured
Data
Silos Reduce Data Utility
for Many Businesses
10%
High
Degree of
Data Silos
Little or No
Data Silos
28%
16%
Unstructured Data
56%
Moderate
Degree of
Data Silos
Fewer than 1 in 3 companies can provide a robust single customer view (CSV)
Source: CompTIA’s Big Data Insights & Opportunities study

9. Challenge #2: Asking the Right Questions and
then Aligning to Possible Sources of Answers
Top 5 Challenges in Using Data Analysis Tools
1
Matching data findings to business objectives
2
Integrating data tools with existing data sets
3
Understanding data needs of all business units
4
Building appropriate skills in areas of data management/analysis
5
Evaluating available tools for data management/analysis
57% of businesses report currently using some type of data analysis, data
mining or business intelligence tools; another 36% plan to start using soon.

10. Challenge #3: Reducing Big Data Challenges to
Lots of Manageable Small Data Tasks
Data Analytics or Data Capability Type
Doing, But
Currently
Want to
Doing Well Improve
Want to
Start
Doing
Real-time analysis of incoming data
26%
52%
17%
Search capabilities across organization's data sources
24%
50%
17%
Website traffic analysis
28%
47%
16%
Remote or mobile access to corporate data
26%
46%
20%
Customer profiling and segmentation analysis
24%
46%
24%
Visualization capabilities (e.g. dashboards, etc.)
24%
46%
19%
Predictive analytics
23%
44%
25%
Email marketing campaign effectiveness
32%
42%
14%
Social media monitoring
26%
40%
22%
Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
23%
39%
26%
Relationship analysis and pattern recognition
26%
37%
26%

11. 6 in 10 businesses report being significantly
or moderately deficient in data-related skills

12. Big Data Skills Span Many Functional Areas
IT-centric skills
Data
Infrastructure
Hybrid
skill sets
Data
Management,
Processing &
Analytics
Interpretation,
BI, Visualization
& Presentation
Businesscentric skills

13. Big Data Jobs: Demand Projections
Projects 4.4 million new IT jobs will be created globally by 2015 to support big data,
with 1.9 million of the jobs created in the U.S.
By 2018, projects a shortage of up to 1.69 million big data positions. Of which,
140,000 – 190,000 unfilled positions in deep technical fields and 1.5 million in the
area of analytics, business intelligence and data-savvy managers.
During last 90 days, there were 67,478 job postings that included a skills requirement
in the area of data mining.

14. Planned Strategies to Meet Data-Related Skills Needs
Provide training to current employees
Large Firms
Medium-size Firms
Small Firms
Contract with outside business
consultants or vendors
Contract with outside technology
consultants or vendors
43%
36%
32%
Utilize current capabilities, working
to improve along the way
Hire new employees with desired
expertise
59%
62%
42%
41%
31%
26%
39%
29%
23%
30%
33%
23%

15. Big Data Training & Development Framework
Data
Interpretation
& Visualization
- Data analytics / BI
- Data scientist
- Presentation / Visualization
Data
Management &
Processing
-
Database administrator
Architecture / developer
Data / application integration
Data lifecycle management
- Microsoft Certified DBA
- Oracle DBA Certified Master
- Cloudera Certified Administrator
for Apache Hadoop (CDH3)
Data
Infrastructure
-
Storage
Data center
BC/DR
Security
Data capture
-
-
IBM Certified Specialist – Netezza
MicroStrategy Certified Developer
SAS Certified Predictive Modeler
Tableau Certified Professional
Cisco CCNP Data Center
EMC Storage Administrator
CompTIA Storage+ powered by SNIA
CompTIA Security+
VMware Datacenter Administration
*Examples are for illustrative purposes ; not meant to be an all inclusive list or not meant to represent market shares.

16. Desired Data Skill Areas of Improvement
Real-time analytics
46%
Data mining
37%
Relational databases
37%
Predictive analytics
35%
Data security
34%
Standard storage options (cloud, SSD, etc.)
32%
Distributed storage (e.g. Hadoop etc.)
28%
Data visualization
Non-relational databases (e.g. MongoDB etc.)
Machine learning
21%
15%
13%

17. Closing Thoughts
-
The market will take time to develop. Remember Amara’s Law, “It’s
easy to overestimate a technology’s impact in the short-term, while
underestimating its impact long-term.”
-
Many emerging Big Data tools and tactics can be applied to small data
problems.
-
Big Data is an expansive topic with many moving parts. There are
opportunities along the entire Big Data chain.

18. For More Information
CompTIA’s research program publishes around 25 unique studies year.
CompTIA members and partners have access to a research library
containing more than 100 reports covering technology, business,
workforce and channel trends.
CompTIA research and events is a couple of ways in which the association
re-invests resources in the IT channel and the IT workforce. As the voice of
the IT industry, CompTIA has hundreds of tools, market intelligence reports
and business training programs to help IT channel organizations grow.
CompTIA also guides industry training and certification in order to build a
stronger and more diverse IT workforce.
Visit www.comptia.org for more information.