by Angela Guess
Justin LaFayette recently wrote an article for VentureBeat regarding what he considers the “real” opportunity of Big Data: software applications. He writes, “The infrastructure and platform plays that are grabbing the headlines are critical, but they won’t create the same long-term value as those entrepreneurs who figure out how to apply Big Data to the task of disrupting or accelerating a market. Instead the market needs companies to provide Big Data applications that embed the insights for a particular market or business process, delivered at the right time, and to the widest possible audience. Why? Because there are simply too few skilled Big Data practitioners available for every organization that needs access to such insights to work it all out for themselves.”
He continues, “It’s not just the media that has been focused on Big Data infrastructure, much of the recent venture and growth equity investment activity has gravitated towards the tools and platforms needed to manage Big Data and deliver analytic insights. However the largest wave of Big Data value creation is still to come and it will focus on exploiting the infrastructure to create new applications that analytically optimize business processes. My firm’s investment thesis focuses on software and information services companies who are bringing together three key capabilities: control or access to a business process; Big Data infrastructure and skills; and information rights to the broadest set of relevant data.”
photo credit: Sean MacEntee
