Developing Knowledge of Big Data through the Cloud

The business environment has an increasing amount of data that can both identify new opportunities for business firms while at the same time providing knowledge on ways it can carry on its business. The data in this environment comes from many sources and is commonly referred to as big data. The paper describes ways that firms can utilize this data quickly to increase their competitive advantage by directing data to where it adds most value. Many firms see information technology as the driver of this process. This paper takes an alternate approach in defining ways to integrate big data into everyday business planning activities. It sees design thinking as a way that people can collaborate to search big data effectively and to implement the model using cloud technology. It describes how building blocks can be used for this purpose and proposes a set of building blocks to support this process. Rather seeing big data from an information technology perspective the paper sees big data activities being integrated into the business activities in ways that support business processes