Despite the increased focus on big data over the past few years, most organizations are still talking about what big data is rather than focusing on what problems big data can address. Through conducting surveys, studying analyst findings, talking with more than 300 customers and prospects and implementing hundreds of big data solutions, IBM has identified the top five high-value use cases that can be your first step into big data:

Big data exploration
Enhanced 360-degree view of the customer
Security/intelligence extension
Operations analysis
Data warehouse augmentation