BIG DATA
For this MIS2502 assignment, we had to research a current topic on Data Analytics that we have not covered in class. The topic that I chose is Big Data.
Brief Overview:
Data is the key to success for any company. Data being collected is growing at a rate of 50 percent a year. This massive amount of data is what the industry calls, Big Data. This data is gathered from anything and everything such as: social media, transaction records, and sensors in equipment. Companies can increase their value by using this data to collect and analysis data more accurately in order to make better business decisions and improve their products and services.
How it relates to material covered in MIS2502:
How big data relates to the material covered in MIS2502 is that it shows how important it is to gather and interpret data. During the course, we defined data as discrete, unorganized, raw facts. In order to use this raw data we then transformed those facts into meaning, or information. In class, we also learned that 61% of managers believe that almost half of their decisions are made using their “gut” because there is “no good data.” By using big data, companies can improve the decisions made by managers by giving them more data to work with. Big data allows for companies to improve their ability to gather the data and then use that data as information to make important decisions and to improve their services.
Case Study:
A great example of how big data has been applied in practice is Apple’s Siri application on the iPhone. By asking any question to Siri, an iPhone user can instantly get the answer. At first, Siri would not be able to answer all the questions that an iPhone user would have. However, with millions of iPhone users constantly asking questions, Apple can use this data to improve their Siri application. By using the data that Apple has gathered from Siri, they can use that data to make Siri able to answer the increasing amount of questions that iPhone users come up with.
References:
Lohr, Steve. “The Age of Big Data.” The New York Times. 11 Feb. 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-in-the-world.html?pagewanted=all>.
Manyika, James, Michael Chui, Brad Brown, Jacques Bughin, Richard Dobbs, Charles Roxburgh, and Angela Hung Byers. “Big Data: The next Frontier for Innovation, Competition, and Productivity.” McKinsey Global Institute. May 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/MGI/Research/Technology_and_Innovation/Big_data_The_next_frontier_for_innovation>.
“What Is Big Data? Bringing Big Data to the Enterprise.” IBM. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/>.