CTO on Handling Big Data

The chapter came together for its monthly meeting in November to hear from David Rubal, federal chief technology officer, EMC Corporation. Before his presentation, the chapter recognized Col. Nancy Reeves-Flores, USAF, chapter president, for becoming a lifetime AFCEA member. Rubal then took the stage and began his talk with the notion that “everything has to be stored,” including tweets, emails, blogs and all other forms of daily communication. Issues arise with the storage and management of that data. He highlighted that the community must get past the old method of just adding more storage and get to a point where it understands the data and only stores what is necessary. From there, we can expose that data to every platform and maximize its value for the user, stated Rubal. That will be significant for governments and businesses trying to minimize information technology costs.