Big Data: It’s Not Just For Big Enterprise

We often hear about the large companies with large budgets that are leveraging Big Data. But companies of all sizes can benefit from data analysis. It holds plenty of opportunities for SMBs, whether learning about their customers, identifying ways to improve processes or providing additional services. Big Data is not just for big enterprise.

CPL OnlineHowever, apart from cost, SMBs also face some unique challenges when it comes to Big Data. These organizations tend to run fairly lean, which means that they often don’t have the data scientists or sizeable IT staff that larger companies employ. Ultimately, the solutions that they leverage for analysis need to be easy to learn, easy to use, cloud-ready and highly efficient. The less code, the better.

When we first developed the HPCC Systems platform for use within LexisNexis Risk Solutions, we realized we had something very good on our hands. Five years ago in 2011, we decided to open the platform up to the broader open source community for further development and more widespread use. In doing so, we’ve helped Big Data analytics become accessible for all kinds of companies, from startups and SMBs to the big, recognizable brands.

One of our SMB customers, CPL Online is a UK-based leading provider of e-learning courses and online business system solutions. After experiencing tremendous growth – 100 percent year over year, consistently – the company found that traditional databases just couldn’t keep up with the data it was accumulating. While exploring the options to resolve this challenge, many of the tools out there were just too complicated. It was pivotal to CPL Online to act fast and get its solutions out there, so the company chose to leverage HPCC Systems for its data analytics. 

CPL Online has seen great performance improvement, experienced better scalability and ultimately benefitted from increased team productivity with the open source platform. The ECL language is, to quote Managing Director David Dasher, “heaven;” it’s not overly complicated, and it’s easy to understand. Since deploying, CPL Online has saved time, money, and it now provides its clients with better service to boot. The company is no longer held back by data – CPL Online benefits from it, enabling the company to continue its rapid growth.

For more insights on CPL Online’s HPCC Systems experience, and how your SMB might also benefit from using the open source platform, watch David Dasher’s presentation during the 2015 HPCC Systems Summit here