It happens to all of us eventually I suppose.
Just the other day, I heard someone referring to “traditional Big Data”. Since when did Big Data become “traditional”, I didn’t get the e-mail? Of course, in the technology field, the epithet “traditional” is code for “broken”, “no longer of any use” and – most damningly of all – “deeply uncool”. The term is widely used, whether – with this connotation – it is either helpful or accurate is perhaps a matter for debate. This usage makes me recall the rather silly debate about Analytics versus “traditional” Business Intelligence that occurred around 2009 [1].
By way of context, the person talking about “traditional Big Data” was referring to the difference between some of the original denizens of the Hadoop ecosystem and more recent offerings like Databricks or Beam. They also had in mind the various quasi-proprietary flavours of Big Data and/or Big Data plug-ins offered by (that word again) “traditional” vendors. In this sense, the usage is probably appropriate, albeit somewhat jarring. In the more pejorative sense I refer to above, “traditional” is somewhat misleading when applied to either Big Data or – in the author’s opinion – several of its precursors.
While we inhabit a world which places a premium on innovation, favouring the new and the shiny [2], traditional methods have much to offer. If something – a technique or technology – has achieved “traditional” status, it means that it has become part of how things are done. While shaking up the status quo can be beneficial, “traditional” approaches have the not insignificant benefit of having been tried and tested. “Traditional” data tools are ones that have survived some time and are still used. While not guaranteeing success, it should at least be possible to be successful with such tools because other people have done this before.
Maybe, several years after its move into the mainstream, Big Data has become “traditional”. However I would take this as meaning “fit for purpose”, “useful” and “still pretty cool”. Then I think the same about many of the technologies that were described as “traditional” in contrast to Big Data. As ever, the main things that lead to either success or failure in data-centric work [3] have very little to do with technology, be that traditional or à la mode.
Notes
| [1] |
If you have the stomach for it, see Business Analytics vs Business Intelligence and succeeding articles. |
| [2] |
See also 2009’s The latest and greatest versus the valuable. |
| [3] |
I itemise a few of these in last year’s 20 Risks that Beset Data Programmes. |
From: peterjamesthomas.com, home of The Data and Analytics Dictionary