Big Data
Big data is a term that describes the large volume of data being created and stored on a global level, which is almost inconceivable, but it just keeps growing. Therefore, the revolution in data availability is starting to command how businesses create value. It is important to know that volume does not only constitute big data but also variety, velocity and veracity. Every business relies on quick and agile decision to remain competitive. Thus, big data analytics is important in the business tick. The paramount importance of big data – both structured and unstructured is the promise from analysis of it – insight into making productive decisions. Analyzing big data is not like staring into some imaginary crystal ball, where what we perceive is not based on prophetic facts. It is essential we have both the skill sets and analytical tools to be able to understand all the data we are creating, storing, and retrieving for accurate interpretation and decision making. The combination of big data with high-performance analytics enhance the accomplishment of business related tasks. For example, decision trees, clustering and segmentation, and association rule mining are used to predict future outcomes through classification, determine distinct groups of data, and find out the events that predicts the occurrence of other events respectively. These will provide insight and timely solutions to difficult tasks and discover new business opportunities – the magical power of big data and high-performance analytics. Amazon and Walmart continue to take advantage of association rule mining. The Apriori algorithm generate rules which show what products and services are frequently bought together. Therefore, Amazon’s website automatically suggests other products to you once a product is added to a shopping cart. In conclusion, big data will continue to transform businesses through the creation of an ideal analytic environment that is structured to meet the forefront of data analytics demands
References
- Davenport T.H. (2017). Big Data- What it is and why it matters. Retrieved from https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html
- Gong J. (2018). MIS2502 Data Analytics. Retrieved from http://community.mis.temple.edu/mis2502sec002004s18/
- Henke N., Libarikian A., Wiseman B. (2016). Straight talk about big data. Mckinsey Quarterly. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/straight-talk-about-big-data