Big Data
Big data is the large volume of data, both structured and unstructured, that a business deals with on a day-to-day basis. Big data is important because it helps businesses analyze data in order to find: cost reductions, time reductions, new product development, and overall improve decision making. Big data helps find root causes of issues and can even detect fraudulent behavior before it effects your business. Data is extremely important to the operation of every business and can only improve the customer and employee experience.
Big data relates to MIS 2502 because almost every class we were working with various forms of structured and unstructured data and analyzing it. We learned about unstructured data types such as: CSV, XML, and JSON. We then worked with programs such as MySQL, Tableau Prep, R and R Studio, and Tableau to analyze the data. More specifically, we would often have a large CSV file we needed to analyze and were able to find answers to problems through these applications.
An example of how big data is used is by improving healthcare and public health. Big data techniques are used to monitor heartbeats for premature and sick babies. Marr says, “By recording and analyzing every heartbeat and breathing pattern of every baby, the unit was able to develop algorithms that can now predict infections 24 hours before any physical symptoms appear.” This is extremely important because it allows doctors and nurses to treat these babies in an environment where every minute really does count.
“What Is Big Data and Why It Matters.” What Is Big Data? | SAS US, www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html.