Big Data Visualizations

With the advent of Big Data coming out of the "Trough of Disillusionment", executives are searching for ways to use the plethora of information sources to help them make informed business decisions. To really understand information and especially Big Data, executives require multiple visualizations to gain an understanding of trends and to see "ah-ha" moments and the effects of events on their business. This is especially true in Retail.

This was nowhere more evident than at Sam's Club, a large retailer who was swimming in data but was challenged to find a method to make it both understandable, come from a trusted source and provide valuable visualizations that could enable the business.

I will be describing the development of a big data solution for Walmart Stores Inc. in which we brought together 12 billion rows of information and then presented using both data science toolsets and analytical visualizations allowing the management of the organization to "see" the business and understand the information.

As a hands-on, accomplished Information Technology professional, Robert Abate offers 30 years of experience in Analytics Architectures, Applications, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Information Management, IT strategy/management, and the Chief Data Officer organizational model. He is credited as one of the first to publish on Services Oriented Architectures (1996) and is a respected IT thought leader within the field. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and is a Certified Business Intelligence Professional and a Certified Data Management Professional in four disciplines. Mr. Abate both chairs and presents at global conferences and is a member of the board of DAMA [http://www.dama.org] and a respected author and industry thought-leader. Mr. Abate frequently can be heard giving talks on topics such as "The Convergence of SOA and BI," “Best Practices in Enterprise Information Management," and “Big Data Visualizations and Predictive Analytics."