Big Data Analytics Meets Big Data

Wal-Mart handles more than a million customer transactions each hour and imports those into databases estimated to contain more than 2.5 petabytes of data. Radio frequency identification (RFID) systems used by retailers and others can generate 100 to 1,000 times the data of conventional bar code systems. Facebook handles more than 250 million photo uploads and the interactions of 800 million active users with more than 900 million objects (pages, groups, etc.) – each day. More than 5 billion people are calling, texting, tweeting and browsing on mobile phones worldwide. Organizations are inundated with data – terabytes and petabytes of it . To put it in context, 1 terabyte contains 2,000 hours of CD-quality music and 10 terabytes could store the entire US Library of Congress print collection . Exabytes, zettabytes and yottabytes definitely are on the horizon . Data is pouring in from every conceivable direction: from operational and transactional systems, from scanning and facilities management systems, from inbound and outbound customer contact points, from mobile media and the Web . According to IDC, “In 2011, the amount of information created and replicated will surpass 1 .8 zettabytes (1 .8 trillion gigabytes), growing by a factor of nine in just five years . That’s nearly as many bits of information in the digital universe as stars in the physical universe .” (Source: IDC Digital Universe Study, sponsored by EMC, June 2011 .) The explosion of data isn’t new . It continues a trend that started in the 1970s . What has changed is the velocity of growth, the diversity of the data and the imperative to make better use of information to transform the business . The hopeful vision of big data analytics is that organizations will be able to harvest and harness every byte of relevant data and use it to make the best decisions . Big data analytics technologies not only support the ability to collect large amounts, but more importantly, the ability to understand and take advantage of its full value .