Business insight through analytics is the real name of the big data game, and with the jump in ability to analyze unstructured content, the potential is huge and the applications are limited only by imagination. We plot the early adopters’ successes and tackle the “how to get started issues”.

In our early 2011 survey, we uncovered a latent potential for a host of big data applications, but although respondents knew what the “killer app” would be in their business, very few had taken the first steps towards achieving it.

In this survey, we look at progress towards an understanding of big data potential, and the take up of tools and products. We look at analytics across unstructured content, and its linkage to structured data sets, and we also measure the take up of social data analysis and it’s application in a number of predictive and problem-solving ways. We will also be asking early adopters about the issues they faced getting started and the ROI they achieved.