Business Analytics, Business Intelligence and the Hardware Upgrade Tarpit

A common misconception about business analytics, is that better business analytics usually requires better hardware.

Business Analytics: Software rules over Hardware

A number of blogs have recently reflected on the “REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DESIGNING A DIGITAL FUTURE: FEDERALLY FUNDED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN NETWORKING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY” pointing out how progress on algorithms has contributed 43 times more to advances on processing speed than pure hardware improvements (Moore’s Law). &emdash; The report notes that in a 15 year span ending in 2003, hardware improvements accounted for a 1,000 fold increase in compute speeds, while during the same period, the algorithmic improvements accounted for a 43,000 fold improvement.

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Business Analytics: Focus on Smarter Data Warehousing

While these numbers may certainly be up for debate, the main point to retain, is that by improving the algorithms, i.e. the software used in your systems, you can attain much higher efficiencies then by replacing the hardware alone. Taking a holistic approach, using an Information Agenda that takes into account all aspects of the data lifecycle paves the way for a better Data Warehouse that enables smarter Business Analytics, avoiding the tar pit of never ending hardware and software upgrades.