These days, everyone in technology is buzzing about “Big Data”. For those of you who are reading this term for the first time, Gartner defines it as follows:

Big Data is high-volume, high-velocity, and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making.

In our hyper-connected world where technology and automation permeate all aspects of everyday living and commerce, a lot of information is constantly being produced at incredibly high speeds. Obvious examples of Big Data being generated today include:

• Social media content (i.e. unstructured data created and published on blogs or external platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Web and mobile retail analytics, as well as web traffic analytics in general

You likely noticed that these examples have something in common. They represent high velocity data that is being generated through the web, and also specific to the media and retail industries. Unsurprisingly, the Internet isn’t the only medium driving big data, and retail and media are among many other industries being affected by it. Industries like banking and securities, government, transportation, and utilities are also producing mass amounts of information from various channels (technology driven and otherwise). All of this information is ripe for processing.

Big data presents enterprises with new opportunities to generate insights and intelligence that can be leveraged to make business more efficient. For a retailer, these efficiencies could come in the form of improved ways to push merchandise to customers. Case in point: Amazon has one of the best product recommendation algorithms of any online retailer on the planet (these algorithms are driven by Big Data). Within the transportation industry, airlines can leverage big data to address a steady decline in profitability and move up the value chain. For example, airlines collect a lot of information regarding passengers. Knowing about a customer’s birthday or occupation can help deliver value-adding services that improve the overall flight experience. These are very basic examples of the type of innovation Big Data has the potential to support.

It is also key to note that data is perishable, as it is relevant only for a certain period of time. Big Data is all about real-time execution. It aims to address the issues presented by conventional data warehousing practices. Older methods fail to realize the full value of data given major time lapses between the moment information is gathered and the moment it is processed. Once enterprises are able to turn the insights generated through Big Data into actionable business decisions instantaneously, that is when they will unlock the full value embedded within that data.

The inspiration for this post is a Forbes article I came across the other day. It’s titled: Roundup of Big Data Forecasts and Market Estimates, 2012. The author does a great job of highlighting the applicability of big data principles across a variety of industry verticals.

More is being learned about the presence of Big Data and its applicability within an enterprise setting everyday. Regardless of how things pan out, you can be sure that it will continue to change the face of business.

- Qasim