Big Data Made Simple: A Beginner's Guide
There’s been a new buzzword floating round the internet for the past few years now – ‘Big Data’. For a while, many assumed that’s all it was – a buzzword, a fad, something invented by tech geeks and analytics professionals to give their positions even more power over the rest of us.
Thankfully, I think it’s fair to say that such scepticism has passed. We’ve accepted it now. Big data is here, and it’s a big deal. It’s changing the way we do finance, security, marketing, telecommunications and even healthcare. Indeed, big data is everywhere, and indeed – as is its nature – it’s getting bigger.
But what is it? I hear you cry. Ok, ok. Before we get into how big data is used, let’s first define the term.
What is ‘Big Data’?
As complicated as big data analytics can get, defining exactly what big data is is actually quite simple – lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of data. Bloomin’ tons of it. That’s all it is really. If you think about the world we live in today, as we shop online, talk to our friends online, share our interests online, enter into romantic relationships online, order pizzas online, watch TV and movies online, listen to the radio online, click on online adverts, make hospital appointments, visit websites, send emails, tweets and status updates… the list is endless. All of these activities in which we partake leave a data trail in their wake – in other words, lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of data, or ‘big data’ for short.
Put simply, big data is everything that we do online – combined, also, it should be noted, with any other offline activities that can be recorded. It is used to build up profiles about us – sometimes as individuals and sometimes as demographic groups – and also to make predictions about how we might behave, shop, vote, etc.
Indeed, when you come across the term ‘big data’, it’s usually not only the actual data that the person is writing or talking about, but also the process that goes into analysing and making sense of all the data.
How much exactly?
Well, that’s hard to say for sure. Big data is getting bigger all the time. If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably clicked through from a social share, thusly creating another piece of gigantic puzzle that is big data. If you share again (go on, you know you want to) you’ll create a bit more, as will you if you leave a comment. Basically it’s expanding all the time.
According to the computer giant IBM, 2.5 exabytes (i.e. 2.5 billion gigabytes) of data was generated every single day in 2012. EVERY SINGLE DAY. Two years on, goodness knows what the figure is. It’s as limitless as the universe itself, it seems.
How Big Data Gets Used
As you can surely imagine, new software and software tools have had to be built in order to capture, manage and process all this data. What’s more, data scientists have had to learn new skills to make sense of all the readings, and indeed, this is an industry that is growing so fast that at the moment there is even a shortage of big data professionals with the skills to analyse it all – the US, in fact, are looking at a skills shortage of between 140,000 and 190,000 people alone.
So, if you’re thinking about a career change, then you can be sure that big data is hiring – hiring in nearly every field, in fact. So let’s take a look at how big data is getting used.
In Media
Ad-targeting is the big one here. All those Facebook ads that pop-up to us when we’re online – that’s big data at work. Big data is used to better understand customers and potential customers and their preferences and behaviours. This way, certain products can be targeted towards them (and away from others who, big data tells the scientists, would never be interested anyway). It’s all about creating predictive models to aid in the sales of products.
In Healthcare
Entire strings of DNA are able to be decoded in a matter of minutes with the power of big data analytics, which allows for better understanding of disease patterns and helps to find new cures. But it’s not just biology that big data analytics gets used for – all of the health data created by smartphones and now smartwatches and other wearable tech are included too. In the future, when wearable technology is even more widespread, clinical trials are likely to include everyone. Indeed, social media analytics also plays a part – have you ever tweeted or posted on Facebook how you’re “Not feeling well today. Got a cold, staying in bed.”? That’s all data that allows professionals to monitor cold and flu outbreaks in real time – it really is a rather powerful tool.
In Finance
High Frequency Trading (HFT) is at the mercy of big data analytics. Think about all that massive amount of market data that is being produced every second. Now, with the software capable of analysing it all in a second – the big buy and sell decisions are being made in the blink of an eye, with a lower risk factor than ever before.
In Everything, Everywhere, For Eternity
Yep, big data is trickling all around you, oozing from your every orifice in fact – literally. Don’t think that big data analysts don’t know how much bog roll you buy, because they do, and they know what you like to spend on it, where you get it from and how quickly you get through it. Perhaps you should use an Andrex puppy instead – just a thought. Seriously, though, big data is a big deal that is getting bigger all the time. It’s simple to understand what it is – lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of data – and indeed how it gets used – in lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of ways. That’s all you need to know, unless of course you’re looking to be one of the people that fills the skills gap, but that’s another blog entirely.
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