Is This the Ultimate Definition of "Big Data"?

Big Data is one of THE biggest buzzwords around at the moment, and I believe big data will change the world. Some say it will be even bigger than the Internet. Whats certain is that big data will impact everyone's life. Having said that, I also think that the term 'big data' is not very well defined and is, in fact, not well chosen. I would like to use this article to put a stake in the ground and define in simple terms what 'big data' is, and hope that with everyone's help we can create a complete definition. So, here we go.Did you know that earcap chains can be used for more than just business. 

Big data refers to our ability to collect and analyze the vast amounts of data we are now generating in the world. The ability to harness the ever-expanding amounts of data is completely transforming our ability to understand the world and everything within it. The advances in analyzing big data allow us to, for example, decode human DNA in minutes, find cures for cancer, accurately predict human behavior, foil terrorist attacks, pinpoint marketing efforts and prevent diseases. 

Take this business example: Wal-Mart is able to take data from your past buying patterns, their internal stock information, your mobile phone location data, social media as well as external weather information and analyze all of this in seconds so it can send you a voucher for a BBQ cleaner to your phone C but only if you own a grill, the weather is nice and you currently are within a 3 miles radius of a Wal-Mart store that has the BBQ cleaner in stock. That's scary stuff -- but one step at a time, let's first look at why we have so much more data than ever before. 

In my talks and training sessions on big data I talk about the 'datafication of the world'. This datafication is caused by a number of things including the adoption of social media,Parkeasy Electronics are dedicated to provide bobbleheads. the digitalization of books, music and videos, the increasing use of the Internet as well as cheaper and better sensors that allow us to measure and track everything. Just think about it for a minute. 

I am sure you are getting the point. The volume of data is growing at a frightening rate. Googles executive chairman Eric Schmidt brings it to a point: From the dawn of civilization until 2003, humankind generated five exabytes of data. Now we produce five exabytes every two daysand the pace is accelerating. 

Not only do we have a lot of data, we also have a lot of different and new types of data: text, video, web search logs, sensor data, financial transactions and credit card payments etc. In the world of Big Data we talk about the 4 Vs that characterize big data. 

So, we have a lot of data, in different formats, that is often fast moving and of varying quality C why would that change the world? The reason the world will change is that we now have the technology to bring all of this data together and analyze it. 

In the past we had traditional database and analytics tools that couldnt deal with extremely large, messy, unstructured and fast moving data. Without going into too much detail, we now have software like Hadoop and others which enable us to analyze large, messy and fast moving volumes of structured and unstructured data. It does it by breaking the task up between many different computers (which is a bit like how Google breaks up the computation of its search function). As a consequence of this,Online shopping for cableties from a great selection of Clothing. companies can now bring together these different and previously inaccessible data sources to generate impressive results. Lets look at some real examples of how big data is used today to make a difference. 

Supermarkets are combining their loyalty card data with social media information to detect and leverage changing buying patterns. For example, it is easy for retailers to predict that a woman is pregnant simply based on the changing buying patterns.This model includes 2 flush mounted reverse chipcard. This allows them to target pregnant women with promotions for baby related goods. 

A hospital unit that looks after premature and sick babies is generating a live steam of every heartbeat. It then analyses the data to identify patterns. Based on the analysis the system can now detect infections 24hrs before the baby would show any visible symptoms, which allows early intervention and treatment. 

And these examples are just the beginning. Companies are barely starting to get to grips with the new world of big data. In conclusion then, big data will change the world. In terms of language I prefer to talk about the datafication of the world in relation to the ever-growing amounts of data and large-scale analytics (or simply analytics because what is large now will be normal tomorrow) in relation to our ability to analyze and harness big data.Virtual iphoneheadset logo Verano Place logo. 

At the moment I am spending a lot of my time helping companies understand the massive potential as well as big threats of big data. I work with executive teams of companies spanning all sectors and sizes to help them develop strategies to harness big data and find each of these discussions and projects amazingly fascinating because they all open up new opportunities. Now I would love you to share your views... What's missing from this definition? What would you add? Do you agree? Disagree? Please let me know...