Trends in Technology: Big Data
You may have recently been hearing about the words “Big Data” if you’ve been following news in the technology industry. It is a relatively new trend that is just beginning to make an impact and affects more industries than just IT. It can be seen being used almost everywhere from healthcare to financial services to telecommunications and even transportation.
So what exactly is big data? Lets start off with a few facts:
That’s a lot of data! The concept of big data emerges from this trend. However, it is important to realize that big data doesn’t only encompass the large amounts of data that firms have today, but also how this data is analyzed and interpreted. That is the heart of big data: what do you do with such massive amounts of data, how do you analyze it (what tools do you use), what do you analyze (what is relevant vs. what isn’t), and how can it help you find relevant trends in your industry. Through the business courses you’ve taken, you probably know that this kind of analysis can be very valuable to firms.
These data that are being analyzed can be pretty much anything. One might want to analyze the thousands of comments that people post on articles that relate to the latest iPhone 5 news, what is going on in the financial markets, which hot new phones are coming out soon, what are people saying about the presidential candidates, etc. Using these data, analysts can better understand what people think about certain products, where certain trends are going and which ones are starting. Moreover, big data tools are very powerful. (more…)