A: Knock Knock

B: Who's there?

A: Dummy

B: Dummy who?

A: Dummy you without a big data and analytics project (jk).

But you are in luck, I happen to have the book for you -Big Data and Analytics for Dummies. If you are so hung up on the words, "for dummies," here is the rationale why we decided to use this popular brand, Cisco Comments on the Dummies Brand.

Most of us in the industry already know the importance of big data and analytics. For those of you who are further along, you might even be in the process of retiring the phrase, "big data." Dealing with "big" amounts of data is no longer the main problem; getting the real insight fast and accurate from various sources is the goal. No matter what you believe in, or which stage you are at, it's better to start the big data and analytics projects sooner rather than later.

International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasted the big data technology and services market growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.1% over the 2014-2019 forecast period with annual spending reaching$48.6 billion in 2019. By 2020, organizations able to analyze all relevant data and deliver actionable information will achieve an extra$430 billion in productivity benefits over their less analytically oriented peers.

Cisco and our ecosystem partners has put together an end-to-end solution for several key industries, which include agriculture, education, entertainment, finance, healthcare, manufacturing, insurance, public sector, retail, and service provider environments.

Our customers have experienced:

• 50-70% cost saving by eliminating data replication using Data Virtualization
• 3 year return on investment (ROI) of 366% through their deployment of Big Data solutions on Cisco UCS.
• 5 months faster big data deployment
• 56% faster server deployment
• 62% lower operational costs

To reap the benefits of Big Data and Analytics, this book is a great way to get started. Here is a breakdown of the chapters.

• Chapter 1 Introducing Big Data and Analytics
• Chapter 2 The Business case for Big Data and Analytics
• Chapter 3 The First Steps to Analytics: Data Collection, Preparation, and Virtualization
• Chapter 4 Infrastructure for Big Data and Analytics
• Chapter 5 Three Must Haves to Ensure Success
• Appendix: Cisco Big Data and Analytics Partners

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After you have a good understanding of the overview, we have more detailed information for your further learning. Here is a list of our joint Cisco UCS and ISV partners' solutions:

• Cisco and Cloudera Brochure
• Cisco and Hortonworks Brochure
• Cisco and MapR Brochure
• Cisco and Splunk Brochure
• Cisco and Platfora Brochure
• Cisco and IBM Solution Brief
• Cisco and SAS Solution Brief
• Cisco and SAP Solution Brief

For more information, please visit Big Data Portal. Want to meet a few experts in person? We are on the road for MapR Big Data Everywhere, Cloudera Sessions, and Cisco Live.