City of Barcelona Deploys Big Data BI Solution to Improve Lives and Create a Smart-City Template

Barcelona, Spain, wanted better insight into government effectiveness. To achieve this, it needed a solution that could collect and analyze data from its systems and new public sources such as social media, software log files, and GPS signals. Working with Microsoft partner Bismart, the city built a hybrid cloud-based Big Data solution that features data and business intelligence services based on Windows Azure, Windows Azure HDInsight Service, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 including Analysis Services, and Microsoft Excel 2010. As a result, Barcelona provides near real-time insight into structured and unstructured data, supports BI access using any Internet-connected device, improves services and business opportunities, improves safety and public health, and provides a smart-city template that boosts collaboration between Barcelona, its citizens and businesses, and other global .