Love it or hate it, big data is here to stay. It has solidified its roots in every sphere of business and in collaboration with other technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things, etc., it is creating technology waves like never before.
If you are keen to enrol in analytics courses online, it is necessary that you know what exactly is big data and its benefits. A brief understanding will give you an idea if you are cut out for the course and if yes, what type of career you want to build in big data.
Understanding Big Data
Big data refers to humongous volumes of data that is generated every day through the internet, mobile devices, social media platforms, videos, images, digital transactions and even GPS signals! In fact, big data accumulates information from every digital footprint that we leave on the World Wide Web.
The data collection is so huge that it is impossible to manage through traditional database management systems like spreadsheets. It requires cutting-edge analytics to capture, process, store and analyse. It has three distinct elements – volume (size of data), velocity (speed of generation of data) and variability (structured and unstructured).
Advantages of Big Data
- Machine-led Intelligent Decision-Making: With the business world operating under Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) environment, it is difficult to determine the factors and trends that can generate business opportunities or have an adverse impact on the business growth and sustainability. However, big data predictive analytics provides information backed by logic and numbers. When this machine intelligence is applied to human experience, knowledge and instincts, it leads to predict the future outcomes to a considerable extent, mitigate the risks and accordingly take strategic decisions.
- Cost Reduction: Big data enables automating business processes, thereby reducing human intervention and errors. As a result, operational efficiency goes higher, resulting in cost savings.
- Real-time Information: Since big data generates data every second, you can analyse the information in real-time. Let’s say; you have launched a digital marketing campaign on Facebook. Right from the moment the campaign goes live, the analytics dashboards starts showing its performance and whether the message has been communicated to the target audience. If the results are not as expected, you can promptly modify the marketing strategy.
- Customer Satisfaction: Today’s customers are very tech-savvy, demanding and fickle. With information at their fingertips, it doesn’t take them to research for every product they buy. If they don’t get the desired product and services, they just switch their loyalty. Big data helps predict customer behaviour and provide highly personalized recommendations to them.
The future of big data is very bright. If you want your career prospects to be brighter, analytics courses online should help you.
