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# Where Platforms and Big Data Collide
- URL: https://www.philsimon.com/platforms-big-data-collide/
- Published: 2014-11-27T17:37:58.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-05T01:06:40.000Z
- Description: Looking at two of the most important concepts in business today.
- Author: Phil Simon
- Tags: Analytics, Big Data, Platforms, Hadoop, The Age of the Platform, Too Big to Ignore

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 [books](https://www.philsimon.com/books)a 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](https://www.philsimon.com/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](https://www.philsimon.com/blog/platforms/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*](https://tinyurl.com/4philaop?ref=philsimon.com), 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](https://www.philsimon.com/blog/platforms/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.