Big Data Options for Small and Medium Enterprises

Donna M. Schaeffer, PhD, Marymount University

Patrick C. Olson, PhD, National University

· 49% of private sector employment (SBA, 2012)

· 64% of new jobs created (SBA, 2012)

· 43% of sales (Freudenberg, 2012)

· 51% of GDP US (Freudenberg, 2012)

(Source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-26/small-business-job-creation-is-stronger-than-we-think)

(Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323501004578386321069156006.html?mod=WSJ_Technology_LeadStory)

· 98% of respondents agree it is important to keep up with technology (The National Small Business Association, 2010)

· Most of the fifty best SMEs had adopted Web 2.0 to some degree (Kim et al, 2013)

· SMEs in the United States spent $53.0 billion on IT in 2011 and are expected to exceed $138 billion in 2012 IDC (2012).

· SMEs account for 10% of the investment in information technology worldwide (IDC, 2012).

· SMEs are spending increasing more of their budgets on cloud technology (Dyson, 2013).

· Spending on security is increasing and is expected to pass $5.6 billion in 2015 (Eddy, 2012).

· 51% of small business owners view technology tool-related capital investments such as new software, mobile apps and cloud computing services as a top priority for investment (Brother International Corporation, 2013)

· Small business owners or managers are actively using five different devices including laptops, desktops, smartphones and tablets; with some reporting regularly using as many as 12 different devices (Kass, 2013).

(Source: google.com)

Big data usually includes data sets with sizes beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, curate, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time. Big data sizes are a constantly moving target, as of 2012^[update] ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petrabytes of data in a single data set. With this difficulty, new platforms of "big data" tools are being developed to handle various aspects of large quantities of data.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data)

VOLUME

VELOCITY

· 46 % of small business owners don't have the bandwidth or sufficiently reliable networks for cloud storage (Drobo, 2012)

· Only one-third have actually invested in networking infrastructure (IDC, 2012)

(Source: http://www.broadbandmap.gov/)

VARIETY

· Customers

· Account data such as payments

· Operating data

· Activity data that tracks when and for which applications the business’ account with the service provider is used

(Source: THE Journal)	(Source: NCR.com)
(Source: Cloudcomputingproject.com)

Implications

· The volume of data is rising and will continue to do so simply because of the trends related to customer interaction

· Raise awareness of cloud computing among small business owners

· Clarify data rights in service level agreements for cloud computing

· Improve access to high-speed broad band networks

· Cooperative sharing of information among SMEs