The software industry is essentially the heartbeat of the ICT industry itself, and there is often a lot of hype surrounding new software trends, such as cloud computing.
But there is a new kid on the block - big data - and it is not just hype. Companies are going to have to know how to manage it and extract the important information that is often deeply hidden.
So said Johann Evans, chief technical officer of unified data management company Cherry Olive.
"There is a current belief that there is nothing more fashionable than big data, but I am one of those people who believe it is far more than a hype, or a fashion - it is a growing phenomenon in the technology market that has to be seriously addressed."
He said this is why there is a new type of software specialist, one which is gaining momentum - but is desperately short of skilled staff.
The data scientist
"This new software arena is often termed a data scientist. These new software specialists have arisen alongside this relatively new technology, big data. While not linked exclusively to big data projects, the data scientist role does complement them because of the increased breadth and depth of data being examined, as compared to traditional roles.
Evans said a data scientist represents an evolution, or advancement, from the business or data analyst role. The type of formal training is similar, with a solid foundation normally in computer science and applications, modelling, statistics, analytics and maths.
What makes the data scientist different is his or her strong business acumen, tied with the ability to communicate findings to both business and IT leaders in a way that can influence how an organisation approaches a business challenge. Good data scientists will not just address obvious business challenges; they will also focus on the right problems that can ultimately provide the most value to the company - giving it a significant edge in the market.
The data scientist role has been described as "part analyst, part artist". Anjul Bhambhri, vice-president of big data products at IBM, said. "A data scientist is somebody who is inquisitive, who can stare at data and spot trends. It's almost like a Renaissance individual who really wants to learn and bring change to an organisation."
Whereas a traditional data analyst may look only at data from a single source - like a relational database or a CRM system, for instance - a data scientist goes further and explores and delves into data from multiple sources - and delves deeply. The data scientist will sift through all incoming data with the aim of discovering a previously hidden piece of data, or business intelligence - or insight - which in turn can provide a competitive advantage or address a pressing business problem.
A data scientist does not simply collect and report on data, but also looks at it from many different angles, and discovers what it means - and recommends ways to use the data, but is able to present it in a technical fashion for the more technically-minded, and in a business fashion for the more business-minded employees. Then the data scientist recommends ways to apply the data.
"But one thing that is a certainty," said Evans," this new breed of software specialist is going to be very much needed."
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