Data analytics technology has had a big impact on the modern business world. Big data systems are one of the main modes of this impact.
The following article will provide you with five reasons that your company should implement a move to a big data system as soon as possible.
What Is Big Data?
- For those less well-versed on technological lingo, a brief definition is necessary. A big data system collects and processes large amounts of streaming data. The data is then made available to the company to use in whatever manner necessary.
- A big data system allows companies to improve their business model based on marketing, sales, customer and a whole host of other types of data.
- The good big data system will even implement things like stock prices, weather and news to give you a full vision of any correlations present between all data available.
This is a big upgrade over the old method of loading extracted data into huge data warehouses that would be periodically backed up, combining data only at specific times. These old systems could not deal with a large number of different streams of data. The volume was too much for it. Not only that, but the system was unable to modify data in real-time.
Big data, on the other hand, utilizes cloud hosting and optimized data structures to give companies their combined data immediately and continuously. This allows companies to greatly decrease risk in decisions. Also, these decisions can be informed by the vast amounts of data at the company’s disposal.
5 Reasons Why You Should Use Big Data Systems
1. Improved Data Management
Your average processing platform nowadays gives you the capability to navigate numerous types of data. Big data systems allow users to do this all on their own, without that much technical know-how required. Such systems afford users the ability to sift through different data formats. This way, they collaborate them for specified purposes.
For example, sports events often use real-time video processing to monitor athletes in order to catch any foul play or cheating. Big data systems are also used in medical transcription to extract and process data in a clinical language.
2. Cloud Storage Capabilities
Many modern day organizations have large swaths of data sets to be used, making them the perfect candidates for third-party cloud service. Such cloud storage gives not only the space for the data the company has, but also the ability to process data for a set period. In other words, cloud storage allows companies to study huge data sets. Meanwhile, it is also removing the large investment necessary for physical hardware that is normally used to internally store data. Not only that, but cloud storage also affords companies the ability to interact more efficiently with their big data systems.
Big data systems are often complex, requiring a more skilled IT department. Cloud storage systems give departments a simpler way to harness that complexity to their advantage. Cloud storage also removes the necessity of creating a new configuration from scratch, instead giving developers the ability to build an environment already ready to work with.
3. Visualize Your Data
Data visualization tools are relatively immature when compared to the long life of the intelligence software market. Such tools make it easier to read data, presenting users with charts, graphs, slideshows, etc. With such large amounts of data present in big data systems, data visualization tools need to have powerful engines that are able to manipulate information speedily, possibly even in real time.
Big data systems also give executives the ability to leverage data, providing access to charts, infographics and dashboards. With the usability of visualization tools, executives can more easily do so. They don’t even need a more well-versed IT employee. This yields a greater return on investment and allows a reach beyond report writers.
4. Unique Business Opportunities
With data being the driving force behind your company, you are yielded a unique competitive advantage. The easiest way to see this is to look at a presidential election. Political elections often use voter interests to inform them on how to structure their campaigns. Big data systems allow managers to collect the information and condense it into a specialized flier or email, possibly gaining a vote.
This use of interests is not specific to political campaigns anymore. It is very common for a social media site like Twitter or Facebook to look at a users interest to give them a more personalized ad. This function gives those sites an upper-hand when selling ads to companies. Also, it gives those companies the ability to target individuals that fit their brand. Big data systems are used in a similar fashion by retail companies, studying user behavior in online stores.
5. Improved Data Analysis
Data has moved on from simple numbers on a computer screen. Big data systems provide users with text, audio and video files at their finger tips. A good system even gives a user the ability to specify certain criteria in order to recognize patterns. Natural language processing tools become essential to text mining, sentiment analysis, clinical language and name entity recognition.
This is most easily seen in many call center operations. These companies use a tool to pair callers with the ideal agent, using behavior analytics technology among other things. This software uses certain criteria to categorize each incoming call and reroute that caller to the right department, cutting down time spent navigating to the right customer service rep.
One Thing to Keep in Mind
Big data systems, while extremely beneficial, will require the hiring of new talent. Without the right person running your big data system, it will not be operating at the maximum efficiency needed to ensure full benefits and gains.
A good data scientist knows just what questions to ask and just what insights to supply.
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