The Future of Big Data and Analytics

Big data and analytics are useful tools for both large and small business. The future of this technology is an exciting one with many changes and challenges ahead. Today, we are going to discuss some of the future trends that are expected to emerge in the big data and analytics industry.

How do you feel about big data and analytics? Is it worth the time and money put in? Well, businesses around the world feel that it is an extremely useful tool that will allow them to have insights about their company and operations that were previously unavailable. It is estimated that 65% of businesses will use big data by 2015 and many features will improve.

Search Functions Improvements

The search function for big data is currently limited with the primary tool of single keyword searches. These are very useful for some operations but the goal is to rely less on these kinds of searches by dramatically improving the content processing and refinement in search functions. This will allow users to rely less on specific word searches but will still be lead to the sought after information.

New Entry and Mobility

The users and industries that use big data and analytics are expected to expand greatly with the insurance industry expected to make large strides forward in their usage. This will be accelerated by the mobile feature of big data. These mobile programs are expected to allow companies and workers to access big data remotely and it will become a crucial feature. This will allow real time usage and alerting to decision making employees.

NoSQL Consolidation

On the technical aspect of big data, NoSQL consolidation will continue and become dominant. NoSQL is also known as “not only SQL” and allows there to be more ways to look at the data than the exclusive SQL requires.

Employment Shortage

With all of the advancements in big data, there will need to be qualified workers to run, manage, and fully understand the complex systems that they will be working with. This is a major concern because the industry is only expected to be able to fill one third of the IT jobs that will be created from the use and adoption of big data alone. There are expected to be 4.4 million IT jobs created globally in 2015 with 1.9 million of them in the United States. This is a challenge because without the proper knowledge of how the systems work, they will not be able to be utilized to their fullest.

How do you think that this problem can be overcome? Do you think that the systems should be altered in any way so that they require less skill and knowledge to be used?

No Longer a Trend

Big data and analytics are relatively new to the business world but so are many other technologies. Some come and go but big data and analytics are here to stay. Users are able to find out information and complete tasks in five minutes in which it previously took them over eight hours. Some insights are arrived almost instantly and this was previously unheard of. The possibilities that this technology allows is now vital to many industries such as the mobile phone, telecommunications, travel, and banking industries. They are able to attract new customers, identify potentially high-risk customers, save money, and increase profit. Big data and analytics have become invaluable to business today and in the future.

Do you agree with the belief that big data is now a permanent fixture in the IT world? Would it help or benefit the industry you currently work in or in a future endeavor?

This concludes our four part series on big data and analytics. Feel free to respond to any of the blog posts with any feedback or questions. Information for this blog post was obtained through the below sources. If you would like to read more about the future trends of big data and analytics, please feel free to browse the below links.

http://www.csc.com/big_data/publications/91710/105057-trends_in_big_data_a_forecast_for_2014

http://www.bigdata-startups.com/what-various-big-data-studies-tell-us-about-its-future/

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9232721/Big_data_to_create_1.9M_IT_jobs_in_U.S._by_2015_says_Gartner

http://tdwi.org/articles/2014/01/14/5-bi-trends-2014.aspx

Using Social Media to Gather Big Data

Using Social Media to Gather Big Data

A look into Facebook mining

Organizations, small and large have been using social media now more than ever. Not only can companies connect with their current and future customers, they can also gain valuable information through social media websites. Sites like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter are now giving companies new information on their interests and behaviors.

There are services that help companies access and interpret the big data. Facebook is currently the biggest social media that big data is extracted from. 

"We send 10 billion Facebook messages per day, click the ‘like’ button 4.5 billion times and upload 350 million new pictures each and every day. Overall, there are 17 billion location-tagged posts and a staggering 250 billion photos on Facebook."

Analyst will be able to use this data for years to come, but considering the amount of information we put into Facebook per day, analyst will always have fresh data to use. For example, a company might want to know all of the people within a 30 mile radius who are between the ages of 40 and 50 who have been to upscale restaurants in the past month. A company can then use this information to send those Facebook users a coupon or pop up advertisement about their new restaurant opening this month. The more information that organizations can collect about customer preferences and behaviors, the better they can personalize and customize their businesses to suit their clients. 

"Facebook goes beyond simply analyzing and 'mining' the user profile data. USA Today revealed how Facebook tracks users across the Web. Using 'tracking cookies' Facebook can collect information about each website you are visiting. This means when you are logged into Facebook and then browse the web (completely separately from your Facebook activities) Facebook knows what sites you are visiting."

Being able to use all of the data that Facebook as well as other social media's intake plays a huge role in companies decisions and how they approach customers online. As of now, all data being used is legal and easily available, but users are starting to question what analyst are using and how they are getting this information. Users are worried that the information about their "likes," pictures, and comments will be used against them and be sent out to unwanted individuals or be able to be hacked easier after the big data tracks their every move. 

How do you feel about big data and social media? Even though you do have security preferences on Facebook and other social medias, how safe do you feel knowing that analyst can see what websites you visit even when you're not on the actual social media site that they're using to get your information. This also brings up security and privacy issues that are covered in our recent blog posts. Will Facebook have to eventually make restrictions or will laws be enforced against certain information being used? Lastly, do you think companies will actually benefit from using this big data? As a consumer, are you really more likely to use a product or service simply because they email you or flash a banner advertisement while you are on Facebook?

-Morgan Dunlap

http://smartdatacollective.com/bernardmarr/185086/facebook-s-big-data-equal-parts-exciting-and-terrifying

http://www.wired.com/2014/03/facebook-decade-big-data/

Big Data Analytics for Security -but what about your privacy?

Security

We all care about the security of our information, whether it’s simply our name, email address or the use of your likeness, we value the protection of it. Have you ever had your bank account frozen because of fraud; your credit card number stolen; or perhaps had your email account hacked? Was your answer yes to any of the preceding questions? Well, so was mine. As recently as a few days ago I had my information compromised, someone hacked into my email account! So how do companies ensure the protection of our personal information as well as our more critical information – banking, credit card and financial information?

Well, here comes big data analytics to the rescue. As you now know from our previous post, big data analytics involves the gathering, processing and storage of large volumes of information for organizations. That information when analyzed becomes useful in the tracking of consumer behaviors and organizational issues. Industries have now taken notice that this information can not only be useful in marketing and business development, but also in providing consumer satisfaction – with regards to security.   http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6682971&isnumber=6682920

In November of 2013 the biggest retail hack in the history of the United States occurred when Target’s security operations center failed to react to alarms from FireEye – its million dollar security firm. Millions of customer’s personal information such as names, addresses, email accounts and credit/debit card information was compromised! Could this have been avoided? The answer is an astounding “YES”. As consumers we later learn that Michael’s and Neiman Marcus had also been hacked. Target had the software in place but failed to analyze the information properly and react accordingly. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/14/business/target-missed-signs-of-a-data-breach.html

Now, let’s look at this from a big data analyst perspective. You had the tools in place to detect the fraud but couldn’t analyze it. So, wouldn’t you agree as a consumer and an analyst, that if this information had been shared within a large volume capacity among other retailers within the industry and processed against other known information, that the hack may have been fought off before any harm had occurred? – Maybe yes, maybe no, but either way, something more has to be done to protect consumers from such malicious attacks against our personal information!

Big data analytics for security is the perfect answer. It is now developing tools to filter out noisy insignificant data at greater speeds and more efficiently. In the past such tools have been too expensive for industries as a whole to develop and share, but with improved technology comes lower cost and this is the case with big data analytics for security. Big data analytics can process, store and display this information in such a manner that interpretation of the information becomes less liking to fail due to human interpretation of the information.

Privacy

Although big data analytics maybe the answer for industries in protecting us as consumers from fraud and theft, it may also pose serious problems in regards to privacy for consumers. Because so much of our information is already stored with the individualized retailers and entities, we have to ask ourselves, does the sharing across organization lines really matter? It’s an individualized answer and it’s yours.

Please post your comments and personal experiences of fraud, theft and views of big data analytics in the realm of security and privacy to this post.

Big Data and Analytics? What is it and who really cares?

What is Big Data?

To begin with what exactly is Big Data? Well it's not as complicated as one may think it's actually just that, Big Data or very large amounts of data collected for an organization. Now when I say Big Date I mean literally any event that can be captured in an organization. Put it this way, imagine at US Airways every ticket purchased, every phone call made to customer service, every login onto US Airways.com or usage on the app, every time you fly you scan your ticket, you check your bag, if you register a complaint via email, text or even through social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, etc). Even the old fashioned way communicating in person to customer service or on the phone with them you’ve just initiated some data the organization can capture. Now think of how many events a large organization can have in a single day, (especially on days when things go wrong like when Jetblue shut down operations in 2007 stranding thousands of passengers in a major snow storm in and start piling it up). The amount of data can be overwhelming which is probably why the term Big Data came about it’s literally Big Data.

Taken from Charlotte this is the same storm that shut JetBlue down. (photo credit to Brendt Hanson)

What is it used for?

Once you have all this data collected and thanks to great technology such as IBM’s Watson (a new supercomputer) it can be analyzed to do many things. It can be used to predict buying behavior, develop new products, and customize ads directed to you. Businesses are now deploying it ever more increasingly to acquire new customers, retain existing ones thus growing the business. Does a business ever read those complaints (surveys, emails, texts) you submit? Maybe, maybe not; but this is another example where the technology is used to process all the information to come up with improvements or find out what the customer cares about most to ensure they get that right. Have you ever heard of House of Cards the hit show on Netflix? According to webopedia.com Big Data Analytics were used to analyze its subscriber data to come up with the essential ingredients to make the hit show and bring back Arrested Development from the cancelled show realm. Again this is more on the business side of things but it’s even allowed researchers to decode the human DNA and predict where terrorists plan to attack so it has major ramifications in the scientific community as well as security and safety for the general public. Looking at the wide array of uses already identified from analyzing Big Data, just imagine what else we can do with it we haven’t even thought of the questions to ask yet.

What to expect? 
This is the first in a series of 4 blogs to be posted on the topic Big Data and Analytics in which we will cover many other areas including security, recent developments to big data, and in closing the predictions of big data analytics and where it is expected to go in the future. I hope you enjoy the topic and information covered in this and the blogs to come and please feel free to leave comments on this posting and future posts.