Startups can help move Big Data beyond the hype

Two recent articles on technology impacting people’s everyday lives caught my attention. Leveraging technology to improve people’s everyday lives has always been a passion of mine and these examples are both inspiring and encouraging.

Da Nang, Vietnam’s fourth largest city, is using Big Data to provide smarter water and smarter transportation systems to its citizens .

John Deere has built a Big Data-Internet of Things platform to enable farmers increase their crop yield and help address the growing need for food production.

This September marks my one year anniversary working as a HANA advocate for Big data and Analytics startups, as part of the SAP Startup Focus program.
Primarily focusing on startups in the Americas, the initial wave of startups joining the program were involved in building Big Data applications in marketing, retail, etc. They were solving niche problems or what, I consider, first-world problems. Solving such problems are important. But I believe that the real value of Big Data will be in transforming existing processes in traditional industries. Of late, I am seeing a small crop of companies that have the potential to transform an entire industry such as the energy industry and personalized medicine that could impact billions of lives. It is applications such as these that will move Big Data beyond the current focus of speed and efficiency of traditional business processes.

Are you a startup company working with Big Data that will revolutionize an industry and/or positively impact millions of people? Check out the SAP Startup Focus program and register to attend one of our live forums being held in multiple cities across the world.