Understanding Big Data
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People are bombarded by large sums of new information on a daily basis. There is literally so much information thrown at us every day that information overload is a normal occurrence. As a result, both individuals and companies are seeking new ways to manage an increasing volume of information.
Data has also become a huge part of every Canadian organization. Now more than ever a company’s data management has taken on a huge role and is requiring more attention, resources, and budget money. Since companies are in the habit of collecting and analyzing large sums of information and data as part of their strategic decision making process, they are also storing large sums of data. This has led to the rise of big data.
What is Big Data?
Big Data
Big data is a term that has roots in information technology. Also referred to as enterprise big data and in the context of big data analytics, it refers to processes, procedures and tools that are used by companies to manage high volumes of data and information. This includes strategies employed to develop, manage and manipulate sets of information that are outside the scope of standard software tools.
How is big data defined?
While the definition of big data will vary, here are three factors that aid in defining the term:
- Ease of use: Big data is a term that is used when companies begin to have trouble storing, sharing, and analyzing data with database management tools.
- Size of the data set: In general, big data is thought to mean terabytes, petabytes or larger sums of data. However, this number will continue to increase overtime as the need for more data grows.
- Data management: The size of big data will vary from organization to organization; however, if your company has to reconsider your data management options, then you are likely dealing with big data.
How does big data help organizations?
Big data will help Canadian companies in the following ways:
- A way to uncover more efficient methods of productivity
- The ability to uncover more subtle variances in data, performance, processes, and analytics
- A method to create new innovation
- The ability to identify trends and forecast future actions
- More detailed and specific information to be used in the decision making of key stakeholders
Things that have led to the rise of big data
There are a number of factors that have led to the rise of big data:
- The increase volume of data collected by Canadian organizations
- The increased need for more detailed information
- The need to continuously find new differentiating factors
- The rise of social media
- The integration of multimedia into the business arena
- The rise of analytics
How big data creates value for organizations
Big data will play a significant role in companies going forward. Here are a few ways that it will be able to provide value once companies implement it into their operations:
- Transparency: Big data can help to make data more transparent and available within your company. This will make it more accessible and allow people to use it more frequently.
- Policy development: Increased data and analysis will allow companies to create more accurate internal and external policies.
- Development of future strategies: Big data will assist in the development of new strategies, products, and protocols.
- Focus: Big data allows companies to create more specific and detailed products. This allows them to be extremely detailed and become more accurate in meeting their customer’s specific needs.
- Decision making accuracy: The more data and information that is collected and analyses will allow people to make more accurate decisions in all facets of your organization. This will improve overall decision making at all levels of your company.
Big Data Video
Friday, November 30, 2012
Big data: Talk or action? An unscientific survey of international chief information officers shows a variety of attitudes towards the concept, ranging from cost worries to approval
Friday, November 16, 2012
HP releases new server optimized for big data The server is built to support data-intensive computing, the company says
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Big data and the legal profession: the jury is in Lawyers are now able to use predictive analytics to determine outcomes in the same way other businesses are
Friday, October 26, 2012
How to exploit big data It's tempting to think that data speaks for itself. But as this case study shows, often analytics staff has to talk to other staff to be able to leverage data in the organization 
Friday, October 26, 2012
Python simplifies big data Language can become the lingua franca for mixed teams of big data experts
Monday, October 22, 2012
IBM's big data strategy blazes forward Company says its on-premise and cloud-based analytics software is now faster, easier to use, and better equipped to tackle both structured and unstructured data
Friday, October 19, 2012
The shifting sands of unstructured data The technology that can find meaning in unstructured data can take two very different forms
Thursday, October 11, 2012
The special breed of data scientist The reason for the shortage of qualified data scientists is the rare combination of qualities needed for the job
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Big data could helps airlines take flight What do you get when you combine data from social media Web sites and weather forecasts? A better way to predict hurricanes and snow storms, thinks one company
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
IBM adds to PureSystems line PureData integrated systems are optimized for transactional, operational or big data analytics customers, with claims they can be deployed in as little as 24 hours
Thursday, September 20, 2012
A hiring policy based on big data? You can lie with statistics, but some companies still find them more reliable than human intuition in their hiring process
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
The cost of keeping Hadoop open-source Hortonworks is building its Hadoop distributions completely in open-source. Could its rivals take advantage?
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Intel eyes big data processing power Intel`s Xeon chips could provide the high performance needed for real-time analytics
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The big data of gamification New branch of gamification company is being set up to analyze billions of transactions
Wednesday, September 05, 2012
Stronger local government IT needed for big data Massaging big data could save cities a lot of money, say experts. But a report points out they don't have the infrastructure to do it
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Big data is about analytics, not storage IT WORLD CANADA CURATED Storing big data isn't much of a challenge to the enterprise, but using it is
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Should Hadoop come out of open source? IT WORLD CANADA CURATED Zettaset's CTO says the Hadoop community is focused on its own needs, not the needs of the enterprise. Is that such a bad thing?
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Companies expect big data to affect sales While the majority are concerned about big data, only 16 per cent have a strategy in place to cope with it, according to a report
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Is Hadoop practical for the enterprise? ITWORLD CANADA CURATED: Hadoop will be more useful to businesses if it is taken out of open-source, says one vendor
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Big data as a BYOD security blanket New security strategies are relying on analytics to predict and mitigate threats
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Open-Source: Coming to HP's rescue? HP's new cloud offering is based on open-source technology, something that is appealing more and more to consumers
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Most firms have no big data plans: Survey There's been a lot of hype around big data recently, but this survey makes things more grounded. It also includes responses on IT managers storage choices 
Friday, July 06, 2012
Get more from business intelligence data A consultant offers 15 tips for getting a bigger kick from big data. First: Define what metrics will help you manage a team or role better
Monday, June 25, 2012
Analyst: Hackers eager to exploit early BYOD chaos Mobile device management is key for enterprises. SourceFire: cloud-based anti-malware offers mobile protection without "taxing" devices
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Hadoop becomes critical cog in the big data machine As more and more companies use Hadoop to handle big data, anticipation for forthcoming Version 2.0 grows