What's the Big Data?

We have been hearing a great deal about Big Data in the last few years. What is this hype about? Why the hype? The hype says that with more data we can gather the better answers to business problems. My first exposure to Big Data was at the University of Arizona’s 2014 Symposium on Data Analytics in Healthcare held on October 17, 2014. At the time, my team of healthcare management consultants for the University of Arizona Medical Center, decided to attend this symposium to understand the hype and how Big Data is helping the healthcare sector. I am sure, that we have all read that the healthcare industry is under pressure to reduce the cost of care, while improve patient care. The various technologies such as Electronic Health Records (EHR), social media, cellular applications, etc. are pressuring healthcare to dive into the Big Data treasure hunt in order to find ways to improve patient care and reduce overall costs. The speakers at the symposium discussed various topics, projects, and research related to social media (such as twitter) and cellular applications to monitor and improve the healthcare. Nonetheless to say, the symposium was great exposure to various aspects and use of Big Data that sparked an interest in me.   

So the question is what and how Big is Big Data? Big data is an evolving term that describes a massive volume of data that is difficult to process with traditional software and database techniques. We live in a world where technology is rapidly evolving. In return, we are sitting on a big data bomb, with an expected volume exceeding 35 Zettabytes by 2020. I am sure you are wondering, well how much is Zettabytes (see picture below for a hierarchical explanation of Zettabyte)? Ok, so think about a cup of coffee (1 Gigabyte) and compare it to the Great Wall of China – have the picture? Well that is a visual explanation of a Zettabyte.

As part of the Business Intelligence lecture and readings for Week 1, I was mind-blown about the amount of data being generated in 60 seconds:

·        More than 100,000 tweets

·        More than 400,000 Skype calls

·        More than 80,000 posts on Facebook

·        200,000 e-mails sent         

·        700,000 searches on Google

Can you believe it? Are you as shocked as I was? Isn’t this miraculous!? In 2010, Eric Schmidt from Google expressed “There were 5 exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every 2 days.”  

So based on my blog so far, you are tempted to understand big data merely in terms of size but of course, you would be misled. In addition to volume, big data is characterized by volume and its ability to transform into data many aspects of the world that were previously unimaginable, such as GPS signals from cell phones, likes on Facebook, messages and images posted on social networks, readings from sensors, such as vending machines, car seats, jet engines, etc. Las but not least, the speed of data creation is another important aspect of Big Data. Real-time data makes it possible for businesses to understand their position in the market at the exact moment and become more agile than their competitors. In simplest terms, because of big data businesses can now measure, and understand a lot more about how they operate, and translate all that knowledge into improved decision-making and performance.

So, how can we deal with the variety, volume and velocity of Big Data? The answer is Business Intelligence BI). BI is the applications, technologies, tools and techniques that are used to gather and analyze data in order to provide businesses with actionable insights on measuring and managing their performance. Important thing worth noting is that BI is based on data and data needs to be accurate in order to get the benefit of it. There are numerous activities embedded within BI, such as analytics, data warehousing, data collection and processing, data mining, reporting and querying software, digital dashboards. As, Peter Sondergaard from Gartner Research said, “Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine.”

Big data and BI are used in many industries, from manufacturing, to healthcare, from law enforcement to environment, from traffic control to fraud prevention, etc. The exponential growth of data will require need for BI related jobs. Based on a recent report from McKinsey, United States will require about 200,000 data scientists (an individual that can combine analytical, technical, quantitative and business skills) and 1.5 million data savvy managers.

In closing, if we think Big Data is big now, we just have to wait …

References

Cukier, K. N., & Mayer-Schoenberger, V. (2013). The Rise of Big Data. Foreign Affairs.

McAfee, A., & Brynjolfsson, E. (2012). Big Data: The management revolution. Harvard Business Review.

Miller, R. (2014, Aug 10). If You Think Big Data's Big Now, Just Wait. Retrieved from Tech Crunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2014/10/big-data-bound-to-get-really-really-big-with-the-internet-of-things

Ram, S. (2015). Intro to Big Data and Business Intelligence. Module 1