Big data and analytics projects will be managed by individual departments when the analytics solution at hand concern to a specific function that department does. The analytics solution is required to answer key questions that about the business, whether it is struggling with in a particular area of expertise or not. This makes the owning department the most logical area to start the search for an analytics solution. Some good practices can be: i) develop a compelling business case for the application ii) Get support for the project. iii) don't let IT run the project iv) Trial the new application v) Perform due diligence vi) Develop a roadmap vii) Don't let the technology take over viii) Create a super user ix) Always attempt for a "quiet" system. Read more at: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-tips-for-running-a-successful-analytics-project-outside-of-it/

Cloud is the new buzz word. Nowadays, more and more people are willing to shift to the cloud. There are too many paths available for this journey and each path which does appear to be good, might not result in a successful decision. So people need to consider more details than they actually thought. The first step is to categorize types of workload that one wishes to migrate. These are not the applications, but the patterns of processing the applications. Some of the patterns may be - Database-intensive; Compute intensive or; User interface- intensive. If you have, say 200 applications, then, place each application in one of these categories and you will end up dealing with 3 categories rather than 200 applications. Doing so, you will be able to select proper cloud configuration to service your applications. This approach will help you in saving time and money. Read more at: http://www.infoworld.com/article/3016559/cloud-computing/the-right-way-to-migrate-to-the-cloud.html