One of the buzzwords that we often hear in the tech sphere today is the big data. With the increasing demand for an efficient data management analysis in businesses and even government bodies, many thought leaders in various sectors believe that big data could be – and will be – the ultimate game changer in today ‘s changing environment
But what is big data anyway?
Statistics says that the amount of data being produced on a daily basis has been growing exponentially in the past recent years and that by 2020, the amount of data that will be produced in every second in this planet would amount to a whopping 1.7 million gigabytes. This massive of data can be sourced to almost any devices or any equipment that has an embedded sensors on it or/and is connected with each other through the information superhighway aka the internet.
From digital cameras and smartphones to heavy machinery and even household appliances, the big data is composed of diverse information which can be harnessed by anyone who can turn this massive information into useful insights. However, like many of its advocates would put it: “Big data is useless if you do not know how to properly utilize it”. Which is why many organizations in different industries have already participated in the initiative to further refine data analysis process that is currently being used by many businesses.
Big Data and Hadoop
One of the products of this initiative is the Hadoop. According to SAS, Hadoop is an “open-source software framework for storing data and running applications on clusters of commodity hardware.” Simply put that Hadoop serves as the primary analytics tool that companies are available to use to extract vital insights on any data source real time. Because of Hadoop, many businesses are now able to detect important trends and make timely business decision – giving them an edge over the competition.
Improve Competitiveness and Higher Operating Margins
Sectors like retailers are just one of industry who can potentially benefit from using Hadoop in their business. When retailers are able to spot price trends in the market real-time, they will also be able to adjust the price of their products, or possibly schedule promos and discounts according to the buying behavior of the market.
Aside from pricing intelligence, businesses can also craft the message of their marketing campaign using the data insights provided by Hadoop. Because a large portion of big data comes from social media sites and search engines, a business can drill down information such as customer’ past purchase, buy behaviors, personal information, internet search behaviors, bank transactions, interests, locations and much more. With this information, marketers can promote their products and services to highly target individuals with advertisements that are tailor-fitted on their personal preferences.
In field service industry, companies can obtain data from sensors embedded in equipment to monitor its working condition real-time. With this, vendors can identify any issues and prevent it from worsening through conducting a preventive maintenance, thus saving them and their client a lot of time and money in the long run.
Given this advantages, there can be no doubt that big data can ramp up the growth of a business in every possible way. From increased sales to stronger client-business relationship, proper utilization of data is what many businesses can take advantage today to increase their competitiveness and increase their operating margins by up to 60%
There is a lot to be explored in big data, but it is wise to know its basic realities first. If you want to know the basic facts about this promising concept, check this infographic from Digital Marketing Philippines as they have gathered 8 simple yet amazing facts about big data.
