What is Big Data?

According to Gartner, big data is “high-volume, high-velocity and/or high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing that enable enhanced insight, decision making, and process automation.”

In simpler terms, it means a huge amount of data is being produced at incredible speed with a wide variation of content and it requires processing to make it understandable and actionable.

Not every company needs this kind of assistance, but if you have an overwhelming wealth of data, it could be earning its keep by providing valuable business insights.

How Can Businesses Benefit From Big Data?

Many organizations are sitting on huge piles of data, but it may be spread across several repositories with disparate fields and content. Big data, for businesses, is all about aggregating those rich but sometimes messy data sets and producing actionable insights that can help them solve problems and achieve a competitive advantage. This can be done by…

• Building “datamarts” for individual departments, such as marketing, financial and operations, so they can easily access data relevant to their initiatives
• Using existing data to analyze new business opportunities
• Producing custom dashboards, reports and alerts that inform and improve decision making

Is a Data Scientist Needed in Order to Leverage Big Data?

Every organization’s needs are different, but depending on what you need to gain from your data, you may not need a data scientist. Often, data analysts or data architects can provide what you need.

You can also work with an outside company (like We Build Databases) that specializes in big data services to properly structure your data and build reporting functions to provide many of the same business insights you’d get by hiring a full-time employee – but at a fraction of the cost.

How Can My Company Start Using Big Data?

It’s important to begin any big data initiative with a plan; otherwise, costs and timelines can easily spiral out of control. Here’s what we recommend:

• Identify the business challenges where big data can deliver the biggest impact
• Document and develop new processes, required technologies, and relevant personnel who will be involved
• Create business use cases and the desired results to solve the business challenges

Then, decide if you will be hiring a data scientist, data analyst or data architect, or if you’ll work with a database development company instead. Once you begin working with that person or contractor, they’ll start cleaning and structuring your data, prepping it to provide the business intelligence you require.

Next, that insight is typically made available in reports and/or visualizations so your organization’s leadership can easily use the data to make better decisions.