7 Things to Look before Picking Your Data Discovery Vendor

Data Discovery Tools: also called Data Visualization Tool, sometimes also referred to as Data Analytics tools. These tools are talk of the town and reasonably hot today. With all the hype about Big-data, companies are going dandy on planning for their big-data and are on a lookout for great tools to recruit in their big-data strategy. One thing to note here is that we don’t change our data discovery tool vendors every day. Once we get into our system, it will eventually become part of our Big-data DNA Solution. So, we should put much thought into what goes in picking data discovery/visualization/analysis tool.

So, what would you do and what would you consider important while picking up your data discovery tool vendor? I interviewed a couple of data scientists and data managers in a bunch of companies and prioritized the findings with top 7 things to consider before you go out picking your big-data discovery tools vendor.

Here are my 7 thoughts not particularly in that order:

1. Not a major jump with what I already have: Yes, learning a new system takes time, effort, resources and cycles. So, the faster the ramp up or shorter the learning curve, the better it will be. Sure, many tools will be eons apart with what you are used to, but that should not deter you from evaluating it as well. Just go a bit high on the tools with minimum learning curve. One thing to check here is that you should be able to do routine things with this new tool, almost the same way as you used to doing without it.

2. Helps me to do more with my data: There will be several moments where you will realize the tools could do a lot more than what you are used to or what you are capable of. This is another check to include in your equation. More feature set, capabilities within the discovery tool. The more it will let you do stuff with your data, the better it will be. You should be able to do more fun and investigative stuffs with your data more closely and at various dimensions that it will ultimately help with better understanding of the data.

3. Integrate well with my big-data: Yes, first things first, you need a tool that at least has the capability to talk to your data. It should be able to mingle well with your data layouts, structures without having to do too much time consuming steps. A good tool will always make it almost seamless to integrate your data. If you have to jump ropes, cut corners to make data integration happen, maybe you are looking at a wrong tool for help. So, get your data integration team to work and make sure data integration is a no issue with the tool that you are evaluating to buy.

4. Friendly with outside data I might include as well: Many-times, it is not only about your data. Sometime you need to access and evaluate external data and find their relationship with your data. Those used case must be checked as well. How easy it is to include external structured and unstructured data.