The building block of every IT system is ‘data’. Optimal and secured storage of data has always been the key concern for any organisation. The volume of data is growing every minute and it is a difficult task to manage it. This immeasurable digital data is named as big data. The Internet, by reaching out to each and every computing platform has led to an outburst of information, thereby making big data too big to be handled. A scenario where the data grows beyond the reach of the present management techniques, will lead to total chaos. Some of the challenges faced with big data are: Managing data appropriately is a challenge for any organisation. The optimal use of data in an organised way is a priority task. Accessibility and connectivity of huge data are a hurdle. Data points are not integrated and there is no precise platform to manage data between various projects. The ever-growing data volume demands a larger technological landscape. Security of big data is another important aspect that is of concern to companies. The following chart explains the growth of big data in the recent years: Fig 1. Graphical Representation of Rise of Big data Business Intelligence – A Resourceful Solution for big data: Business Intelligence (BI) provides a solution to big data in the form of data analysis process. BI includes a variety of tools, applications and methodologies that streamline management of huge data. This system incorporates technologies that provide a correct decision making platform for the organisations. Some of the important advantages of Business Intelligence solutions are: BI simplifies the process of data management,...
Released by Microsoft Corporation in 2001, SharePoint was earlier viewed only as a browser-based collaboration and document management platform. But over the years, SharePoint has seen much advancement which has further broadened the scope of this technology. There is so much that an organisation can do with SharePoint. Microsoft itself describes SharePoint as a number of things such as collaboration software, enterprise business process management portal, content management system, business intelligence dashboard etc. With so many capabilities contained in itself, SharePoint has completely changed the way organisations function these days. The platform has gone so popular that over three quarters of Fortune 500 companies now use SharePoint. This blog will talk about the different things for which organisations use SharePoint. With SharePoint you can create an intranet portal for an entire corporate network. This portal can be used to centralise access to enterprise information and applications. All the important news and announcements can be shared on the intranet portal. Even tasks can be assigned to the employees and access to a variety of information can also be given. The intranet dashboard can be customised by department and role and also different levels of access can be granted. Document sharing is one of the most important features of SharePoint. This feature is also the reason behind the initial popularity of the technology. With SharePoint, organisations have a shared space to store documents that can be accessed by anyone (or by those to whom the access is given by the administrator) in the company. This means that the documents can even be shared with employees working in different offices. That too...
