what is big data?

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This is going to be a term that is used to describe a very big amount of data, both data that is unstructured and structured that is going to inundate a business on a daily basis. But the amount of data that you are working with is not that important. It is what the organization or the business does with all of the data it holds onto that matters. The business is able to take the big data that they have and can analyze it in order to gain the right insights that lead to better decisions and can help with strategic business moves...so lets move on to understand what is big data?

what is big data?
what is Big Data?

While the term of big data is going to be new, the act of gathering as well as storing large amounts of information for eventual analysis is ages old. This kind of concept is going to gain a lot of momentum in the early 2000s, when Doug Laney, one of the industry analysts, articulated the definition that we now use when it comes to big data. These are summarized with the help of the three Vs including:

Volume: The organization is going to collect the data they want to use from different sources, including information they get from a sensor or from machine to machine data, social media, and business transactions. In the past, the business would run into trouble storing this information, but thanks to some of the newer technologies that have been released, this burden is a lot easier.
Velocity: The data that a business will receive is able to stream in at a speed that was not possible in the past, but a business still has to find ways to deal with this in a timely manner. Using smart metering, sensors and even RFID tags can help deal with all of this data, no matter how large, in near real-time so that it is dealt with at the right time.
Variety: The data that a business works with is going to come in all different format types. This could come from numeric and structured data in the traditional databases to unstructured forms such as financial transactions, stock ticker data, audio, video, email, and even text documents.

It is also possible that two other dimensions can come into play when we are talking about big data. First, we are going to see the idea of variability. In addition to the increasing variety and velocity of the data, sometimes the flow of data is going to be highly inconsistent with peaks that show up periodically. Is there something that is trending on social media that you need to watch out for? Or is there something else that is causing the variability in the data science workflow that you receive. [What is data science?] You would find that daily, seasonal, and even some event-triggered peak data loads can become even more hard to manage, and this is harder with unstructured data compared to structured data. Working with the ideas of big data can help solve this problem.

Another issue that we can look at is the idea of complexity. Today’s data is going to come from a lot of different sources. This makes it harder to link, match, cleanse, and then transform the data through different systems. However, we have to spend some time connecting and then correlating the relationships, the hierarchies and multiple data linkages, or the data that you are working with are going to get out of control pretty quickly.

As we are going through and doing some defining of big data, it is also important for us to really understand that different types of data can come in. Most companies are going to find that they get a combination of different types of data, so it is important to understand how each of these works and why they are so important.

For example, the first kind of data that can show up in big data is going to be the unstructured data. This kind is going to come from useful information, but it is not organized very well, and often a traditional model of data or database is going to have trouble interpreting the data as it is. This kind is usually really heavy in text, and since these models like to work with numeric information, that can be a problem. Some good examples of this unstructured data are going to include Metadata and many of the social media posts that you may choose to use for your needs.

Then we can also work with what is known as multi-structured data. This is going to refer to a variety of formats for data, and a variety of data types and it is going to be derived from the interaction that can happen between machines and people, including on social media networks and other web applications. A good example of this is the data from a web log. This information could include a combination of text and images that are visual, along with some of the structured data like transactional or form information.

As digital disruption starts to change up and transform communication and interaction channels, and as marketers work even harder to enhance the experience of a customer across a wide variety of devices, face to face interactions, web properties, and social media platforms, the data that is considered as multi-structured is going to evolve as time goes on.

What is very clear here though is that every enterprise, no matter who they are, has to be able to understand big data and what it is all about fully. They need to have a good understanding of what big data is, what it can do for them, and what it means to them. And they need to know the full potential of data-driven marketing on their business. This needs to happen today, without a lot of waiting and delaying. In fact, the longer you wait, the bigger of an issue this is going to turn into and unraveling the confusion is going to seem impossible.

Now, once you have been able to go through and tackle some of the big data, you can then learn what you do not know at all, and then you will be able to take the right steps that are needed to resolve the problems that are there. The best thing of all with this is that you can take the insights that you gather at each of the steps along the way in order to see some improvements with strategies for customer engagements. This ensures that you can put some of the marketing that you do with the help of big data to work and add in some more value to all of your transactions right away, whether they are online or offline transactions that you are dealing with.

This brings up the point of why big data is so important at this point. The importance of this big data, as we mentioned earlier, is not going to really revolve around the amount of data that you have, but more around what you choose to do with that data. You are able to take the data that you want, no matter what source you choose to gather it from and use it to find answers to reduce costs, reduce the time used, help with new product development, and ensures the company is making the best decisions for them.

When you are working with big data, and you decide to combine it together with some analytics that is high powered, you are going to be able to handle a lot of different business-related tasks that can include:
  • It can help you to determine what is the true cause of any failures, defects, and issues in real-time so you can fix them faster than ever before.
  • It can generate the coupons that your customer wants at the point of sale, and these are based on the buying habits of your customer.
  • It can take a look at your portfolios and recalculate the entire risk in just a few minutes.
  • It can help you to detect some of the behavior that may be fraudulent, helping you to find and detect this before it can affect the business at all.
The next question that we need to look at is who is going to use this big data. The neat thing is that almost any industry is going to be able to use big data in order to help them be more effective. There are a lot of different industries that are going to benefit from using big data, including:
  • Banking. With all of the information that is coming into a bank from all different directions and sources, banks are going to be responsible for finding some of the best and the most innovative ways to manage their big data. While it is important for these companies to be able to understand their customers and boost up the amount of satisfaction that is found inside, it is also equally important to try and minimize the amount of fraud and risk that comes up with these transactions, in order to keep the money for the customers safe. The bank also has to maintain all of the regulatory compliances in that area and through the country.
  • Education. Educators who can use the data-driven insight can impact on school systems, on the curriculums that are used, and students. By being able to take the big data and analyzing, they are able to identify students who are more at risk, make sure that students make the right kind of progress, and can implement the best kind of system for evaluating students while also supporting principals and teachers.
  • Government. When a government agency is able to harness and also apply the analytics that comes with their big data, they can then gain a lot of ground when they are running agencies, dealing with traffic congestion, managing utilities, and preventing crime. Of course, the government agency needs to be able to address issues of privacy and transparency while analyzing all of the big data that they receive.
  • Health care. There is so much information that comes in when we are talking about the health care field. Things like prescription information, treatment plans, and patient records. When it comes to the world of health care, everything needs to be done accurately and quickly, and with enough transparency in order to satisfy some of the stringent regulations that are in the industry. When these fields are able to use their big data effectively, the health care provider can uncover some of the hidden insights that are going to improve the amount of care that they provide their patients.
  • Manufacturing. Manufacturers, when they use the insight that is available through big data, will be able to boost the output and the quality they provide, while still minimizing the amount of waste that shows up. And in a competitive market, this is so important. There are a lot of manufacturers who are moving to a culture that is based on analytics, which means that they are gaining the ability to solve problems faster and make business decisions that are more agile than before.
  • Retail. And finally, we are able to see that retail can use these analytics in a lot of different manners. Building good customer relationships is going to be critical to the retail industry, and the best way to do this is with a good system to manage the big data. Retailers need to know the best way to market to their customers if they want to continue making money and growing. They also need to know which method is the best for handling transactions, and the most strategic way to bring back business that may have lapsed. The neat thing about big data is that it can help a retail business, and really any business at that, get all of these things done most efficiently.
As you can see, there are a ton of things that we are able to use big data for, and almost any kind of industry and business can benefit with the use of this kind of data as part of their system. It is a really neat thing to use, and often, the algorithms that come with machine learning can be used in order to analyze and sort through all of that data. But remember, the amount of data is not as important here as we may think. While we assume that companies looking into big data are going to have tons of data to sort through, the part that is the most important is going to be focused more on the idea of how the company sorts through and understands the data that they have, and the way that they use the big data.

What is Big Data: Things that big data can do

The next thing that we need to look at is some of the things that big data is able to do. There are several things that this big data can use, and as a company, you have to decide which of these methods is going to work the best for you and your needs. Some of the different things that you can use big data for include:

Diagnostic analysis. This is something that a business is going to do almost every day, and often, machines are going to take care of this task because of how great they are at doing this.

Once an event has happened, we are going to become more interested in seeking out the causes of that event. Let us look at an example of this. Suppose there is a sand storm that happened in Desert A. We have all of the different parameters that show up in the different parts of Desert A, including the # Cars, Roads, Camels, Pressure, and Temperature.

The idea here is that, if we are able to relate the parameters that we listed out above to the sand storm that we say happen in that area, and if we are able to see a few causal relationships, then it is possible that we can avoid these sand storms in the first place, possibly saving thousands or more lives in the process. This can be used in a lot of different scenarios, and can help us to avoid some big natural disasters, and can even be a great way for us even to learn how to grow the business.

Predictive analysis. Another thing that we can do when using big data is to form a predictive analysis. This is something that businesses do on a regular basis in order to help them to figure out which steps they should take next that are best for that company. For example, maybe you own a hotel chain that is big and takes over the whole globe. But we want to go through the chains and see which one works the best, if there are any problems in any of the chains, and more.

Now, as we do all of this, we need to be able to figure out which hotels are not meeting the target sales like they are supposed to. Sometimes this is going to be hard to find because the information can be hidden under all of the positive numbers from the other hotel chains. Once we know this information, we are then able to change our focus and put the efforts on these hotels. This is then going to become a classic problem of predictive analysis.

The way that this one works is that we try to figure out whether we can improve those hotels are not and if it is worth our time. Using the data that we have from other hotels in the chain, checking out which ones have done poorly in the past and then improved, and see whether it is possible for the hotels that are performing badly to improve or not. If we do not see that they will improve, then we know what steps to take next.

Finding a relationship that shows up between the unknown events and elements. This is a fun part that comes with this kind of analysis. Let us say that you are going through your sales employees and you find that a number of them have no relation to the sales of the company. You can look and see who is doing something with sales, and which ones are just there doing extra work that is not needed, and then reduce the number of sales employees that are there. This will cut down on the number of employees who are not doing their job and then can help you to save a lot of money.

Prescriptive analysis. The next thing that you can do with the help of big data is to use prescriptive analysis. This is going to be one of the future parts of analytics. The best way to see how this is going to work is to look at an example of how it works.

Let us say that we are trying to predict whether a terrorist attack is going to happen in one specific destination and then determine which strategy is the best to use to help move people out of that area in a safe manner. To help us make this prediction, you would need to come up with a series of predictions. They could predict how many tourists are going to be in that area, then predict whether that attack is going to happen, and which area is the most likely to be affected by the blast that is about to happen. All of this can be done with prescriptive analysis.

Monitoring an event as it is happening. This is the final thing that we are going to look at when it comes to what big data is able to do for us is seeing how it can help us monitor an event as it is happening. The majority of those in the industry of using big data is going to use it to monitor events. For example, you will need to monitor the response of a campaign as it is going on, and then find out which segments of your audience are responding to it the least, and which ones are responding to it the most. These analyses are going to be so important in helping you run your business.

As you can see, there are a lot of different things that you can do when you bring big data to the table. It is going to be useful for helping a company to grow, for helping them get through all of the different data that they need to sort through on a regular basis, and so much more.

What is Big Data: Some things that big data can’t do

Now that we have had some time to explore big data a bit more and see what it entails and some of the different things that we can do with this big data, it is time to move on and see some of the things that big data is not able to do. Many people who are starting to get into big data and machine learning are going to be a bit confused by all of this. This is because there is a ton of talk about these topics, with little understanding and not enough research to go behind them to back up the work. Understanding what big data can actually do for you, and what it is not capable of is going to make a big difference in whether you are using it correctly or not.

With that in mind, there are a few things that big data is not able to do, and that it is not set up to work on in the first place. Some of the things that we need to be aware of when it comes to what big data is not able to do for us will include:

Predict future definitively. It is possible to reach more than the 90s when we look at accuracy depending on the kind of tool from machine learning that we choose to use. However, no matter which machine learning algorithms or tool you go with, it is impossible to reach 100 percent with the accuracy. If this were possible, this would mean that you would know the exact person or target to go after and get a response rate each time. This is not something that is ever going to happen, though.

Think of it this way, how likely is it that you are going to find a program or an algorithm that will tell you with 100 percent accuracy who is going to click on your ad and make a purchase each time? Even with the exact target audience in mind, someone may not be interested, may not be in the mood to shop, too busy to look at the ads, or not have the money to purchase. It is impossible to get this 100 percent accuracy because people do not always fit on the range that you are choosing. But machine learning and big data can get close, which can help you to earn more with your budget.

Imputation of a new source of data. Imputation and the process that goes with it is going to take most of the time that you use with any kind of analysis. This is also one of the parts where we can bring in some creativity and more understanding of business into the process. This is a boring piece that comes with the analysis, and it is surely one where a lot of business owners wish they were able to hand the work over to big data and machine learning, but it is definitely a part that needs to stay right where it is.

Find creative solution to the business problems that you are dealing with. Creativity is something that only the human brain is able to work with. No matter how hard we try, no machine that we program is ever going to be able to find the creative solutions that are needed for a lot of the problems that we encounter in business. This is because even the AI that we use is going to be coded by humans, and it is impossible to use algorithms to teach creativity to a machine you are using.

No matter how you decide to use big data, and the information that you can gather from it, it is just an algorithm that can provide some solutions. The creativity is gone from this, though. Humans think in creative ways, which is why they are more likely to come up with the actual ideas that set them apart from others and ensures that your business is going to win above the competition. This is not something that an algorithm or anything with big data is going to be able to do for you.

Now, big data and machine learning can help you out. It can provide you with an analysis of the data and a good idea on what steps need to be taken in order to improve employee morale, cut out waste, or make customers happier and more satisfied. But someone needs to come in and add in the creativity that is needed to make these suggestions actually work.

Find solutions to a problem that is not defined well. One of the biggest challenges that you are going to run into when working with analytics and big data is that you have to shape the analytics problem into more of a business problem. For those who are able to do this process well, you are already on the right path in order to be a superstar in analytics.

This part of the role is something that machines, no matter how we code them and how hard we try, is never going to be able to do this as well as a human can. For example, you may work with a business problem that is known as managing attrition. Now, unless you are able to go through and define the responders and the time windows, then this is not going to work out well. And the predictive algorithm, no matter how well it has been set up, is going to do this for you right now.

Data management or help you to simplify the data for a new source of data. With the growing amount of data that your business is receiving, it is harder to manage that data as time goes on. We are progressing with a lot of different types of structures for different data types. For example, you may have a graph data that could work the best when doing network analysis, but then it turns around and becomes useless when you are doing data for campaigns. This is a piece of information that, even as advanced as machines are getting today, the machine is not going to be able to analyze for us.

Working with big data is something that big businesses are relying on more and more each day. The sheer number of data points that are coming in, even for a company that would consider themselves smaller, is astounding, and as they grow, this information is going to get even bigger. But it isn’t just the amount of information that they are receiving; there is also the idea of how these companies are going to take that information and use it to their advantage.

There are many different tools that you can use with machine learning and more that make going through all of this data easier. And with the help of some of the algorithms that we talked about earlier in this guide, you will definitely be able to go through and figure out how these can benefit your business, what path to take to grow the business or make the customers happy, and so much more in the process.

When it comes to big data and all of the different things that you are able to learn from the information, businesses who choose to work with this are going to find that it can give them a competitive edge. But this only happens when they know how to use the big data, and various machine learning algorithms, in the proper manner. Too many times the information out there about big data is not going to be in-depth enough or isn’t going to be explored enough to get the full benefit, and many companies end up missing out when this happens. Working to grow your company a bit more with this big data includes paying attention, utilizing the different methods and algorithms that come with machine learning and big data, and then adding in the creativity that can only come from the human mind to put it all together and get it to work.

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Thought Leadership: what is big data?
what is big data?
Aspire Thought Leadership! Ever wondered about what is big data?. Find out more on what has changed with what is big data in the current age. Come rig
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