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Tech Thursday: Big Data’s Big Impact

From software to soft drinks; Team Exasol looks at Loading...Big Data’s impact in this week’s latest stories and hottest trends in our weekly Tech Thursday round-up.

Interesting Developments.

What role do you see Big Data playing in software development? It’s no secret that, in this competitive market, developers need to fail fast in order to quickly perfect their software in concordance with business needs. Let us be the bearers of good news;  Amazon Web Services (AWS) (who previously charged by the hour for their Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud  known as Amazon EC2), are now rolling out a price per second billing model. You’re welcome.

What do you think?

Recent GPU offerings from Google, Amazon and Microsoft mark the dawning of a new Big Data future. Could it be true that “the marriage of in-memory databases and GPUs is ushering in the era of fast data” and will we all shift from Central Processing Units (CPUs) to Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)? Share your thoughts with us!

Lightning-fast data movement!

An incredible development in computer chips could mean our computers could run at least 20 times faster. Although coding information as photons is nothing new, up until now we have had to convert these light photons into slow electrons. Scientists have had an amazing breakthrough storing light-based information as sound waves. Described as capturing lightning as thunder, we could be transferring data at lightning fast speeds without wasting energy as heat or suffering electromagnetic interference and then be able to slow that data down to the speed of sound so that our computer chips can process this information. This could mean incredible things for the world of Big Data Analytics.

Harnessing Big Data to quench our thirst.

Next time you crack open a refreshing can of Coca Cola or try a new Cherry Sprite know that you have AI and Big Data to thank for quenching your thirst. By gathering data from vending machines, sales and customer feedback, Coca Cola is able to make data-driven decisions such as selecting the most popular combination of flavours. Next on Coke’s agenda is to replicate the likes of Siri, Alexa and Bixby with an AI assistant that would let you order your own individual concoction of flavours from any vending machine and might even change a vending machine’s ‘behaviour’. So for example a vending machine in a shopping centre would behave differently to a vending machine in a more professional or serious setting like a hospital. I can’t help but get carried away imagining a vending machine like Marvin from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Getting smarter at sleeping.

Matrix is the first smart mattress maker to use ballistocardiography to monitor you while you sleep; ballistocardiography is a non-invasive way of measuring heart rate based on the body movement generated by blood pumping with each heartbeat. This mattress comes with an app that will tell you when is best to exercise but more importantly when to sleep! By monitoring your heart rate, breathing, movement, stress and sleep cycles Matrix’s mattress helps you work out when you get the best night’s sleep so that you can perfect your daily routine to ensure you will be well rested and performing at your best. How much sleep do you get?

Tech gets flexible.

From analysts to product managers, BI to IT, what makes us all tick? Looking at current tech hiring trends, job flexibility pops up as a key factor, not just the flexibility of where you are working but also within the job role itself. With IOT potentially playing an important role in co-working spaces becoming even more flexible and accessible, technology continues to empower our ability to work flexibly. “Whether it be to allow mothers and fathers to work around their childcare commitments or to provide employees a break from the daily commute, flexible working in regard to hours and location should be the default for any organisation,” says Seb Darrington, EXASOL’s UK Managing Director. “For the employee such flexibility, enables a healthy work life balance and happy employees. For the employer, it leads to increased retention but also increased productivity. A win win for everybody,” he says. If retaining good employees in tech is a key focus of yours remember think flexible.

Get online or get out.

Is nothing from our childhood sacred? Following in Blockbuster’s fallen footsteps Toys’R’Us declares bankruptcy . Although attempting to get online by launching a new website this summer it was too little to late facing competition such as tech giant Amazon. Not all is lost however as there are still profitable Toys’R’Us and Babies’R’Us stores around the world that are operating business as usual. Long may it last.

Are our security fears stalling progress?

Following on from last week’s round up, communication between doctors, departments and even hospitals is a difficult issue which Medxnote is working to alleviate; is our fear of our privacy being invaded valid or is it at a detriment to our medical treatment? Big Data Analytics could potentially be the answer to our current electronic healthcare records nightmare. Are we willing to risk our medical information being vulnerable for the sake of progress in our healthcare? I personally am. Let us know your opinion.

Share your thoughts and the latest news by tweeting us at @ExasolAG

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