LinkedIn is a good networking tool, especially for IT professionals, and having a place to go to check out topics of interest is every bit as good as the networking opportunities themselves. We are by now all familiar with the many groups catering to our needs and equally familiar with the tabs Discussions and Promotions. For the NonStop communities, participation in one or more LinkedIn groups is a must, as apart from an annual conference and a couple of regional events, staying current with all that’s happening can be difficult. Simply knowing someone in the same space, who shares your interests, makes exchanges lively!
This month I set up a new LinkedIn group – Big Data, integrated with NonStop. While this group is specific to the needs of the NonStop community, it is a companion to another LinkedIn group with a much broader goal – Data Driven Apps. This new group is similar in intent to another LinkedIn group – Clouds, powered by NonStop, and although membership in this group is about ten times as large as in its Big Data sibling, given the age difference I expect the membership gap to be bridged very shortly. All the same, joining these networks to see what’s happening is every bit as important as connecting with peers and long-lost relatives!
Together, the groups related to Big Data are where conversations will evolve and where events I support will be promoted so check them all out and look at what’s currently being discussed. My most recent discussion asked if it’s still relevant – I’d rather be a hammer than a nail … where the subject looks at whether real time mission critical applications, often sourced from a solutions vendor, can benefit from our own initiatives to integrate with what’s being stored in Big Data frameworks. Can we break off just a small piece and approach such integration in small increments? Will a small claw hammer suffice, rather than a 20lb sledgehammer? This too was the subject of a blog post to the NonStop community blog, Real Time View, and if you missed it, check out the post – I need data I can digest, in small bites, please!
WebAction by the very nature of the control ultimately being given to system architects can generate web actions as verbose or as targeted as we need – it’s really the ultimate control gate when it comes to turning on the flow of Big Data to time-sensitive mission critical applications. In my recent exchanges with folks inside HP as well as the third-party vendors community, there is a perception that by being Big Data, mission critical applications will be overwhelmed by the volume of data hitting these applications. In talks with WebAction, this is just not the case, and you may want to check out some of the targeted areas for Data-Driven Apps already identified by WebAction and viewable on their web site. And if you want to know more about what’s Big Data topics interest me, maybe it’s time to revisit LinkedIn and join a group!
