BY Emeka Aginam

By 2015, it is expected that more than 85 percent of fortune of 500 organizations will fail to effectively exploit big data for competitive advantage,  the  former Registrar of the Computer Professional Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof Adenike  Oshofisan has predicted.

Prof. Oshofisan  stated this in her address last week in Kwara State at the induction ceremony for 2012/2013 conputer science graduates, the Computer, Library and Science Department  of the Kwara State University, Malete, Ilorin conducted by CPN.

According to her, big data will be the next frontier for innovation, production and competition, saying that  the  use of big data will become a key basis of competition and growth for individual firms.

The former CPN boss who spoke on a number of emerging technologies including cloud computing, social networks, mobile devices, cyber attacks and big date said that  current trends in smart devices and growing internet connectivity were creating increases in the volume of data available.

“Collecting and analyzing the data is not enough. It must be presented in a timely fashion so that decisions are made as direct consequences that have a materail impact on productivity or efficiency of the organization. Most organizations are ill prepared to address both the technical and management challenges posed by big data as a direct result. Few will able to effectively explore this trend for competitive advantage,” she said.

She explained that big data is a collection of data sets so large and complex  that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand management tools or traditional data processing applications.

Also speaking on cyber attack, she that as IT  delivery  methods meet the demand  for the use of cloud services and employee owned devices, new software vulnerabilities will be introduced and innovative attack paths will be developed by financially motivated attackers.