Big Data

The enormous quantity of reported data or statistics that's created on a usual basis is named the Information Explosion. This information explosion has lead to a constant state of information overload for all of us. As a result it is becoming tougher for marketers to have interaction with customers and it’s simply planning to get worst. (Source: Geoff Nunberg)

To overcome such drawback, big data came in the picture. Big data is a term that portrays the huge volume of data consists of both structured and unstructured types of data that engages a business on an everyday premise. In any case, it's not the measure of data that is imperative. It's what associations do with the data that matters. Big data can be dissected for bits of knowledge that prompt to better choices and vital business moves. [pic 1]

Organizations collect data from a variety of sources, including business transactions, social media and information from sensor or machine-to-machine data. In the past, storing it would’ve been a problem, but new technologies (such as Apache Hadoop, Dynamo in Amazon) have eased the burden.

I like to say that Big Data replaced storage techniques that were in use during the past decades. The establishment of Big Data is very simple; if your data is too big to be reserved on one single super costly mega-server, just distribute the storage over a grid of small-scale cheap servers.

In the area of Direct Marketing, Correctly harnessing big data means companies have the technology to use any data for a multitude of different purposes. This innovation implies understanding patterns, which is unrecognizable by people. For example, detecting a correlation in the hours between when something occurs and levels of mobile activity.

It’s this predictive capability that makes it so valuable; in as far as it’s a way for brands to scale resources in response to anticipated trends. At the moment, most brands react to consumer behaviour online with a predetermined solution. With big data fuelled marketing, these interactions can be founded on individual behavior – while using exasperated, anonymous sets of information.[pic 2]

Two years ago, Allen Lalonde who is the Senior Executive of IBM Canada, spoke at a Growing Your Business Seminar on Big Data. One of the most interesting facts was the introduction of a petabyte, which is 1000 terabytes, or 1,000,000 gigabytes. In diverse terms, 1 petabyte is equivalent to 800 people’s memories. He spoke about how the unification of big data is extremely challenging due to its volume, velocity, and variety. In fact, the average retail business generates 2.5 petabytes per day. Below are highlights from his talk: