the newsletter of tbd consultants - 3rd qtr 2013

Printable PDF version
Subscribe to our newsletter

In this Edition

Data Centers
Keeping on Top of Data
Market Data

Construction Management Specialists

111 Pine Street, Suite 1315
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 981-9430 (San Francisco office)
 
9705 Cymbal Drive
Vienna, VA 22182
(703) 268-0852 (Washington, DC office)
 
4361 35th Street
San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 550-1187 (San Diego office)
 
8538 173rd Avenue NE
Redmond, WA 98052
(206) 571-0128 (Seattle office)

 
www.TBDconsultants.com

 

Data Centers

In a few short decades the Internet has moved from a way for the military and some academics to share information, to an indispensible tool for business and recreation. But where does this so-called cloud actually reside? In this article we look at the data centers which our online activity depend on.

     
 

Keeping on Top of Data

Many people feel like they are drowning in data, but if you are one of them, we are sorry to say the news is not good. It is said that digital data is doubling every two years, and at that rate in ten years time we will have 32 times as much, and in 20 years we will have over a thousand times as much. Trying to keep on top of this quantity of data and make good use of it, rather than being buried by it, is the task of the day.

Happily, developments in software for managing and manipulating data are growing rapidly as well. Business analytical tools are now available from many sources, including Google. Not only can we use their search engine to find information among the data scattered around the Web, they also provide a couple of online tools, including one called BigQuery, that allow you to query structured and unstructured data sources, either your own or someone else’s if you have been granted access to it.

If you want to house data sources online, your online book store may not be the first place that comes to mind. Nevertheless, Amazon Web Services has become a popular platform for companies to use for online data storage.

It is one thing to accumulate vast quantities of data, but you also need to manage it. Happily, data management tools are also improving, providing faster processing and being more adaptable. These tools can help even non-IT staff to make sense of the accumulating structured and unstructured data filling up the servers.

BIM applications are a form of data management software, because everything you do within the software is either adding information to the database that is at the heart of the system, or is manipulating that data in some way. One way the data might be manipulated is by providing a view into the data in the form of a drawing or a schedule. People are even looking into ways to get robots to work with that data and actually construct the building. Who knows how construction sites will change over the coming years, as technology finds more ways to carry the growing data sources into the workplace?

    
 

Market Data

The stock market has been going through wild swings as it reacts (or over-reacts) to the latest snippet of information. Here we take a look at the economic data from around the world, and try to make sense of what it all adds up to.

    

 

Design consultant: Katie Levine of Vallance, Inc.