Two terms often conflated bastardized by many software vendors and business professionals today are platforms and Big Data. I cringe when I hear terms like Big Data analytics platforms. What does that even mean? And just about everything is a platform today, but don’t get me started. Calm blue oceans …

I like to think that I know a thing or two about Big Data and platforms, as I’ve penned well-regarded booksa on each subject. A very large part of my professional existence entails disentangling potentially confusing terms and communicating in plain English. To these ends, I recently wrote a three-part series on this critical intersection.

Here’s a summary of the series with links below:

• Understanding Contemporary Platforms provides an overview of the modern-day platform with a particular emphasis on Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google—aka, the Gang of Four.
• How Platforms Lead to Big Data examines the data that these powerful platforms generate. This was a natural next book for me. After the publication of The Age of the Platform, I started thinking about Big Data. After all, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other companies generate a startling amount of information with no end in sight.
• Building a Platform: Big Data Considerations brings the content and concepts from the previous two posts together. I also discuss operationalizing Big Data, although admittedly I am just scratching the surface. You’ll learn a bit about Hadoop, NoSQL, and other emerging technologies.