Before I begin this article I want to bring to your attention that yesterday IBM

launched an initiative the Watson Analytics that integrate BA with big Data
Also, many a colleges are offering BA associated with Big data at a Graduate level
as a Masters degree or as an MBA program. If this is the scenario, we might be the
first to launch this course for the undergrad but again given the information I have
gone through, the reason many colleges dont offer an Undergrad degree in Big
Data and BA is because the students need to complete few courses as minimum
requirement.

Faced with the ongoing confusion over the term Big Data, heres a handy and
somewhat cynical guide to some of the key definitions that you might see out
there.
The first thing to note is that despite what Wikipedia says everybody in the
industry generally agrees that Big Data isnt just about having more data (since
thats just inevitable, and boring).
(1) The Original Big Data
Big Data as the three Vs: Volume, Velocity, and Variety. This is the most venerable
and well-known definition
(2) Big Data as Technology
Why did a 12-year old term suddenly zoom into the spotlight? It wasnt simply
because we do indeed now have a lot more volume, velocity, and variety than a
decade ago. Instead, it was fueled by new technology, and in particular the fast rise
of open source technologies such as Hadoop and other NoSQL ways of storing and
manipulating data.
The users of these new tools needed a term that differentiated them from previous
technologies, andsomehowended up settling on the woefully inadequate term Big
Data. If you go to a big data conference, you can be assured that sessions featuring
relational databasesno matter how many Vs they boastwill be in the minority.
(3) Big Data as Data Distinctions
The problem with big-data-as-technology is that (a) its vague enough that every
vendor in the industry jumped in to claim it for themselves and (b) everybody
knew that they were supposed to elevate the debate and talk about something
more business-y and useful.
Here are two good attempts to help organizations understand why Big Data now is
different from mere big data in the past:

Transactions, Interactions, and Observations. This one is from Shaun Connolly

of Hortonworks. Transactions make up the majority of what we have
collected, stored and analyzed in the past. Interactions are data that comes

from things like people clicking on web pages. Observations are data
collected automatically.

Process-Mediated Data, Human-Sourced Information, and Machine-Generated

Data. This is brought to us by Barry Devlin, who co-wrote the first paper on
data warehousing. It is basically the same as the above, but with clearer
names.

(4) Big Data as Signals

This is another business-y approach that divides the world by intent and timing
rather than the type of data, courtesy of SAPs Steve Lucas. The old world is about
transactions, and by the time these transactions are recorded, its too late to do
anything about them: companies are constantly managing out of the rear-view
mirror. In the new world, companies can instead use new signal data to
anticipate whats going to happen, and intervene to improve the situation.
Examples include tracking brand sentiment on social media (if your likes fall off a
cliff, your sales will surely follow) and predictive maintenance (complex algorithms
determine when you need to replace an aircraft part, before the plane gets
expensively stuck on the runway).
(5) Big Data as Opportunity
This one is from 451 Researchs Matt Aslett and broadly defines big data as
analyzing data that was previously ignored because of technology limitations. (OK,
so technically, Matt used the term Dark Data rather than Big Data, but its close
enough). This is my personal favorite, since I believe it lines up best with how the
term is actually used in most articles and discussions.
(6) Big Data as Metaphor
In his wonderful book The Human Face of Big Data, journalist Rick Smolan says big
data is the process of helping the planet grow a nervous system, one in which we
are just another, human, type of sensor. Deep, huh? But by the time youve read
some of stories in the book or the mobile app, youll be nodding your head in
agreement.
(7) Big Data as New Term for Old Stuff
This is the laziest and most cynical use of the term, where projects that were
possible using previous technology, and would have been called BI or analytics in
the past have suddenly been baptized in a fairly blatant attempt to jump on the big
data bandwagon.

INTEGRATING BIG DATA AND BUSINESS ANALYTICS

Providing effective BUSINESS ANALYTICS tools and technologies to the enterprise is

a top priority of CIOs and for good reason. Effective business analytics from basic
reporting to advanced data mining and PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS allows data
analysts and business users alike to extract insights from corporate data that, when
translated into action, deliver higher levels of efficiency and profitability to the
enterprise.
Underlying every business analytics practice is data. Traditionally, this meant
structured data created and stored by enterprises themselves, such as customer
data housed in CRM APPLICATIONS, operational data stored in ERP systems or
financial data tallied in accounting databases. But the volume and type of data now
available to enterprises and the need to analyze it in near-real time for maximum
business value is growing rapidly thanks to the popularity of social media and
networking services like Facebook and Twitter, data-generating sensor equipped and
networked devices, both machine- and human-generated online transactions, and
other sources of unstructured and semi-structured data. We call this Big Data.
Traditional data management and business analytics tools and technologies are
straining under the added weight of Big Data and new approaches are emerging to
help enterprises gain actionable insights from Big Data. These new approaches
namely an open source framework called Hadoop, NoSQL databases such as
Cassandra and Accumulo, and massively parallel analytic databases from vendors
like EMC Greenplum, HP Vertica, and Teradata Aster Data take a radically different
approach to data processing, analytics and applications than traditional tools and
technologies. This means enterprises likewise need to radically rethink the way they
approach business analytics both from a technological and cultural perspective.
This will not be an easy transition for most enterprises, but those that undertake the
task and embrace Big Data as the foundation of their BUSINESS
ANALYTICS practices stand to gain significant competitive advantage over their
more timid rivals. Big Data combined with sophisticated business analytics have the
potential to give enterprises unprecedented insights into customer behavior and
volatile market conditions, allowing them to make data-driven business decisions
faster and more effectively than the competition.

The Big Data Skills Gap

One of the most pressing barriers of adoption for Big Data in the enterprise is the
lack of skills around Hadoop administration and Big Data Analytics skills, or Data
Science. In order for Big Data to truly gain mainstream adoption and achieve its full
potential, it is critical that this skills gap be overcome. Doing so requires a two-front
attack on the problem:
First, that means that the open source community and commercial Big Data vendors
must develop easy-to-use Big Data administration and analytic tools and
technologies to lower the barrier to entry for traditional IT and business intelligence
professionals. These tools and technologies must abstract away as much complexity

from underlying data processing frameworks as possible via a combination of

graphical user interfaces, wizard-like INSTALLATION capabilities and automation of
routine tasks.
Second, the community must develop more educational resources to train both
existing IT & business intelligence professionals and high school & college students
to become the Big Data practitioners of the future that we need. This is particularly
important on the analytics side of the equation.
According to McKinsey & Company, the United States alone is likely to face a
shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep analytical skills as well as 1.5
million managers and analysts with the know-how to use the analysis of big data to
make effective decisions by 2018. This shortage is in part because of the discipline
of data science itself, which encompasses a blend of functional areas.
Specifically, data scientists must possess technology skills focused on statistics,
computer science and mathematics. But they must also have business acumen,
namely the ability to understand the nuances of the business they're in and the
ability to zero in on areas where Big Data will deliver the most value to the
business. Perhaps just as important, data scientists must have expert
communication skills and the ability to tell compelling stories to the business
through Big DATA VISUALIZATION.
As mentioned earlier in this report, a number of Big Data vendors have begun
offering training courses in Big Data. IT practitioners have an excellent opportunity
to take advantage of these training and education initiatives to hone their data skills
and identify new career paths within their organizations. Likewise, a handful of
university-level PROGRAMS in Big Data and advanced analytics have emerged, with
programs sprouting up at USC, N.C. State, NYU and elsewhere. But more programs
are needed.
Only by fighting the Hadoop skills gap war on two fronts better tools &
technologies and better education & training will the Big Data skills gap be
overcome.
TAKEN FROM USNEWS:

Analytics is a booming business, thanks to the rise in big data, and MBA
programs are embracing the trend.
Technology enables companies to collect a lot more data than they once could, says
Bilal Ojjeh, CEO and founder of the website MBA-Exchange.com, which helps
recruiters find MBA students and alumni.
"With data comes the need to interpret the data," Ojjeh says. That's where MBAs
come in. He's seen a steady growth in analytics jobs over the past five years.

Ninety-eight percent of employers believe business school graduates need to know

how to use data to drive decisions, according to the 2013 "Year-End Poll of
Employers" by the Graduate Management Admission Council.
A Master of Science in business analytics teaches students to do just that. It
can prepare students for roles such as a business intelligence analyst, quantitative
analyst or a pricing and revenue optimization analyst, says Srinivas Prasad, an
associate professor of decision sciences and director of the M.S. in business
analytics program at George Washington University.
George Washington has offered its MBA students a certificate in analytics for a few
years, but it launched the degree program in 2013. It is one of many schools
to recently add a degree or concentration in this field.
The Stern School of Business at New York University, the LeBow College of
Business at Drexel University and the Simon Graduate School of Business at
University of Rochester also launched M.S. degrees in business analytics in 2013.
This month, University of NebraskaLincoln started a specialization for MBA
students who want to focus on analytics.
Curricula vary by school and degree program, so students interested in this field
should ask these three questions as they do their research.
Who are the teachers?
Jack Hanlon, who is pursuing an M.S. in business analytics at NYU, says that
knowing about the teachers and their qualifications is an important aspect to weigh
as a prospective student.
"Many of these professors are actually consultants outside of being professors. And
that I take very seriously," he says when referencing his teachers. "This field is just
changing too fast to be teaching it out of a textbook."
Knowing about potential professors is especially important if students get their
degree online, says Donde Plowman, dean of the college of business administration
at University of NebraskaLincoln. At her school, students can enroll in an oncampus or online MBA program. The specialization in business analytics is offered
through online classes in topics such as econometrics and strategic database
marketing.
There isn't a special group of professors that teach online students, says Plowman.
The classes are taught by faculty who also teach in brick-and-mortar programs at
the school, she says.
"We're not shipping them out to adjunct faculty," she says. She encourages
students to ask "Who's actually teaching the online courses?" to find out if the
faculty is strong.
What kind of courses are offered?
Business analytics students at George Washington can enroll in either the 10-month
program or spread out their course work over two years.

Students take classes that fall into one of three areas. Descriptive courses may
cover topics such as data reporting and summarizing, while a predictive class may
teach students how to build predictive models. A prescriptive course might focus on
optimization.
Not all schools offer this range of classes, though.
"Some programs might favor one area over the others," says Prasad, from George
Washington. He suggests prospective students look into what kind of analytics
courses are available.
Students who are familiar with analytics should gauge whether the master's
program will expand their understanding.
"Does the program have some elective options to further their knowledge in that
area?" Prasad says.
At least five schools offer analytics as a concentration for MBAs, and about twice
that many offer it as a MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE, according to data from the
Graduate Management Admission Council, which tracks programs that require the
GMAT.
Students who are conflicted about which degree to pursue should keep their career
goals in mind. Pursuing an MBA with a concentration in BUSINESS ANALYTICS could
be a better fit for someone going into a managerial position, says Prasad.
"Someone who is a little further along in their career, who already has quite a bit of
experience and wants to kind of see how their organizations can make better use of
analytics," he says. "They themselves are not the ones developing the models or
doing the analytics."
At George Washington, Prasad said, many M.S. students have a more concerted
interest in the topic.
"As the next step in their career they want to focus on analytics," he says.

CURRICULUM EXAMPLES

Organizations across the world are struggling to develop the know-how to

aggregate, analyze, and most importantly monetize the growing surge of available
data. Corporate and government entities point to a shortage of individuals that have
the combined business, analytics, IT, and communications skills required to be
leaders in this field. The School of Information Systems and Management at
Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College is perfectly positioned to develop these
leaders with our world-renowned facultyteaching a cohesive blend of data analytics,
management, strategy, and IT COURSES.

Our full-time MISM degree was recently recognized by InformationWeek as one of

the top programs suited to develop the leaders needed to fill the global "big data
talent gap."We are pleased to expand our educational offerings to include a parttime PROGRAM with evening and distance class options through our Master of
Science in Information Technology (MSIT) degree. The MSIT-BIDA is ideal for the
experienced IT professional to gain these skills while remaining on the job and
advancing their career in data analytics.
Prerequisites to apply :

One undergraduate level object-oriented programming class or equivalent

experience prior to ADMISSION.

At least three years of relevant, full-time professional work experience.

Bachelors degree conferred from a regionally ACCREDITED U.S. institution or

its international equivalent.

Demonstrated ability (via academics, test scores and/or work experience) to

synthesize complex quantitative and qualitative concepts is highly
recommended.

Review the general Curriculum information that APPLIES to all MSIT degrees for
more information about core exemptions and transfer credit which may modify the
distribution of the 144 units needed to graduate.
MSIT Business Intelligence & Data Analytics Curriculum:
Course #

Core Courses (60 units required)

Units

95-703

Database Management

12

95-796

Statistics for IT Managers

95-710

Economic Analysis

95-797

DATA WAREHOUSING

94-806

Privacy in the Digital Age

95-868

Exploring and Visualizing Data

95-791

Data Mining

95-852

Analytics and Business

Intelligence

95-866

Advanced BUSINESS ANALYTICS

In addition to the above 60 units of core courses, you'll need to complete an

additional 84 units of electives. Electives can include courses from your home
department, even core courses from another MSIT degree; other CMU departments
that offer evening or distance courses; up to 12 units of independent study (you
design the class); and up to 24 units of transfer credit from previously earned
graduate credit (submit application after you are admitted).
Here is a sample list of electives that can be done in any evening or distance
MSIT PROGRAM:
Sample Electives (choose 84 units)

Units

Advanced Database

6-12

Business Process Modeling

DATA WAREHOUSING

Decision Making Under Uncertainty

Defensive Hacking

12

Digital Transformation

Economic Analysis

Enterprise Architecture

Financial Accounting

Geographic Information Systems

12

Global IT Management & Sourcing

12

Intro to Human-COMPUTER Interaction

Managing in a Virtual Environment

PROFESSIONAL Writing

Statistics for IT Managers

Systems Architecture for Managers

Tech Startup

Other Electives for Campus/Evening Students:you are allowed to take graduate-level

courses from other Heinz COLLEGE PROGRAMS and departments across campus
with pre-approval for your Program Director. Check out the Course Schedules to get
a better sense about what courses are offered by Heinz College and across the
entire university (follow the HUB link on the course schedule page).
Other Electives for Distance Students:you are limited to distance courses listed in
the MSIT distance catalog PDF. While we cant offer every Heinz College/ISM campus
class by distance, we do try to bring in the best of the bunch. That does include
some courses from the School of Computer Science because they have an online
software engineering degree and will allow qualified MSIT students to take their
distance courses.
To earn the MSIT-BIDA degree, you must:

Complete 144 units of course credit (this includes required core, elective and
approved transfer credits);

Successfully pass all required core courses (with a letter grade or approved
exemption);

Achieve a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.0; and

Satisfy all ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS within five years from admission.