What is Big Data?

Over the past few months I have been asked many times, what really is Big Data? I will attempt to share my take on this commonly used term in all of our professional networks. For those that are new, Big Data is a concept that came about as a result of our innate need to understand what has happened in the past, what is “likely” to happen in the future and what we should do about that “likely” case. The saying “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got” comes to life here. In the world of big data analytics, this is commonly known as descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics.

Big data is about pulling together disparate pieces of information into a central pool to allow vastly different parts of a business to access that pool for various purposes. One of those purposes could be, to build reports to demonstrate what has already taken place, hence the word “descriptive” to describe what has taken place. Another could be to understand whether a specific product within a market is working and using data science techniques to apply various hypotheses to calculate what the next actions should be, hence the word “predictive”. The follow on calculated actions required from each of those predictions would be classed as “prescriptive”, since a course of action is being prescribed.

Big data is not the answer to all of our problems, since it is merely a means to end. It can be likened to an engine in a car. The engine itself is not going to transport passengers to a destination, yet it is an integral part of the vehicle, without which, you’ll be unable to get to your various destinations. Those destinations could include initiatives to increase revenue, reduce customer churn or to reduce risk within your business.

The disparate pieces that continue to feed your big data machine will enable you to take advantage of IR4.0 themes including but not limited to Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. There is much work currently taking place to progress the work surrounding IR4.0 as we start to progress ever further into the world of data...

Sunny Nirala

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