The end of Big Data
Big Data has become so large that it isn’t even big anymore. We just call it data.
Mobility and e-commerce have contributed to the deluge of information. Customers expect transactions to be completed in milliseconds, while the companies selling them products and services expect to be able to parse consumer data rapidly.
But data is not finished growing. As the IoT scales, we’ll need new language to evoke the explosive growth in global data volumes — Gargantuan Data, Mongo Data, Beaucoup Data. Where does it end? Infinite Data?
Mining the Deluge
With this avalanche of data comes the need for businesses to analyse it — all of it — for competitive advantage. A global concrete construction company in Ohio uses analytics to align its prices with local markets. City officials in Buffalo, N.Y., use analytics to analyse unstructured data generated by resident calls.
The insights mined help determine immediate service needs in various neighbourhoods, making city teams more responsive. Analytics help banks detect fraud quickly. Utilities monitor power grids. And airlines route flights efficiently.
Companies can invest in descriptive analytics, which interpret what has already happened. Or, they can take it one step further with predictive analytics, which explains what will happen if they stay the course. Prescriptive analytics can tell executive teams where they should be headed or what they could be doing to improve key performance indicators (KPIs).
The smarter the systems are, the closer we can reach true next-generation analytics. In the future, expect customer behavioural analytics to become so targeted that buying happens seamlessly, with the right products and services almost effortlessly within reach of a customer’s fingertips.
Medicine will become personalised, with patients being able to take just one customised pill per day rather than a multitude. And drug formulas may vary by individual, aiming for maximum efficacy based on each patient’s biochemistry.
