Only thing we have to fear

If you and your company haven’t yet taken a dive into a data lake, maybe it’s time to test the waters. In this issue’s lead feature, Sean Martin, founder and chief technical officer of Cambridge Semantics, explains what the relatively new method of management of big data is all about and what’s driving all the excitement concerning data lakes. But dive and swim at your own risk; Martin also details the potential risks.

For more about the premise, promise and potential, as well as the rewards and risks of the next great, “big data” and analytics innovation, see “Deep dive into data lakes.”

When it comes to risk in today’s world, nothing can match the seemingly intractable problem of international terrorism. ISIS and other terrorist organizations have clearly instilled fear and chaos with their murderous and seemingly random worldwide attacks. While the attacks are strategically insignificant on a national level let alone a global scale – and we can argue whether rhetoric from political leaders from some of those countries attacked has only served to heightened the fear – perhaps a better question to ask in order to best counter terrorism is: What do terrorists fear most?

The answer could be distilled down to a single word: “stability.”

Scott Mann, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, Green Beret and longtime Special Ops officer, was an architect and original implementer of the Village Stability Operations (VSO) program in Afghanistan. In his book, “Game Changer,” and drawing on his on-the-ground experiences from missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia and other conflict zones, Mann makes the case that “going local” – establishing stable communities on a village-by-village basis in conflict areas – is perhaps the best way to thwart terrorism.

Doug Samuelson, himself a seasoned defense analyst, interviewed Mann for the article titled, “Changing the game: How analytics can help defeat violent extremism around the world.”

These two articles bookend the feature section of this issue of Analytics. In between, you’ll find offerings on digital business innovation, estimating customer lifetime value and a profile of BNSF Railway and its operations research and advanced analytics team. In addition, regular columnists Vijay Mehrotra, Rajib Ghosh and Harrison Schramm provide commentary on such diverse topics such as the good and bad side of Uber, what 2016 holds for healthcare analytics and predicting Navy football games, respectively.