Big Data – What is it and how you can use it?

If you’ve been around the corporate game for more than microsecond, you’ve likely heard of the term “Big Data”. But what does it mean, and, more importantly, what does it mean for your business?

The simplest way to define big data is, as the name would suggest, a large amount of complex data, usually so much that it becomes quite difficult to translate and process in the usual ways. Not just any large amount though; we’re talking about exabytes here.

There are three universally accepted factors that go into making up big data:

• Volume: Here’s an obvious one, but you can’t have big data without sheer volume of the stuff
• Velocity: Refers to the speed in which data is streaming in, which is particularly challenging when that data needs to be processed or handled in a short timeframe
• Variety: Big data is inclusive of both structured and unstructured data, and in a wide variety of mediums including text, video, audio, and more

How to use big data

So how important is this big data, anyway? Quite important actually, as it presents a number of opportunities for making more dynamic decisions for your business. Big data facilitates much more accurate analysis, in turn allowing you to:

• Create more customised solutions according to the very specific needs of your customers
• Identify reasoning behind failings or mistakes your business may have experienced
• Be more agile and adaptive in your responses to problems and various situations
• Understand the operations of your own business at a more in-depth level, thus being able to create more productive processes
• Make decisions that are smarter for your company and have less potential of risk
• Generate innovative ideas for new products, services, and improvements