Last updated on March 22nd, 2024 at 09:17 am
Big Data is defined as data that is too large and too complex for data tools to for data tools to capture, store and analyze. Experts in the data science industry, identify data with the three V’s which are, volume, variety and velocity. For instance, the amount of shares traded on the stock market in the US amount to about 7 billion, the number of tweets on twitter daily amounts to 400 million, the number of likes generated by Facebook on a daily basis is about 3 billion and about 10 terabytes of data is generated in one flight from NY to London; all of these come under the purview of Big Data. Studies and research have stated that in the last two years about 90% of the world’s data has been generated.
While no doubt there is a huge amount of data present in the virtual space all around us, but just this data on its own is not really of any use to us, unless there is someone who can make sense out of it.This is where data analytics comes into play.
Analytics can be defined as the scientific process of transforming data into insight, which aids in making better decisions as well opening up new avenues of opportunities, all for a competitive advantage. Analytics thus branches out into business analytics and data analytics. Business analytics does not really make use of tools and techniques as much as it makes use of valuable insight, that is derived from unstructured data and further on leads to a business strategy. The role business analytics thus is analyzing the performance of the firm in the past and providing insights, as to how a certain firm should go about its future business performance. This is basically achieved through data and statistical models, quantitative analysis and evidence based management. Today, with the rapid generation of large amounts of data mainly for business transactions, availability of advanced data storage sets as well as the availability of advanced tools to analyze the same; has all resulted in the growing need for analytics in the business sphere.
Analytics branch out into three main types namely, prescriptive analytics which basically deal with enabling smart decisions based on data, predictive analytics which deal with predicting the future on the basis of historical patterns and thirdly, descriptive analytics which means basically mining the data to provide business insights. In simple terms the branch of prescriptive analytics would deal with something like the reason behind air fare hikes every year, predictive analytics would deal with how these e-commerce websites hand you discount coupons, which you actually end up using and descriptive analytics would deal with how certain movie websites, recommend just the right movie to users. Data Analytics in the current year has resulted in people using smart and integrated everyday gadgets, advanced gadgets which could enhance the performance of an individual in a work place and the boom that has been caused by the advent of Virtual Reality.
Thus analytics is soon to become one of the most highly rewarding careers and companies have already begun to demand more and more trained professionals. With the announcement of careers in this field, being considered as the sexiest careers of the 21st century, a lot of people are opting for a career in this field. This has in turn led to a growth in institutes, which excel in offering tailor made courses so as to ensure the generation of the sought after skill set among candidates. Imarticus Learning offer courses in the various tools and technologies of data analytics, while aiming to bridge the gap between academics and industry at the same time.
