The Importance of Big Data, What Does It Mean, and Where is It Used

Since the beginning of time, people started creating data. The old drawings in caves we know were created millions of years ago by homo sapiens’ ancestors are considered the first data created and kept for others to use.

As time passed, more and more data was created. With the invention of books, the amount grew significantly. In the second half of the 20th century, analog storage was invented. Humanity made another leap, but it seems like an ultimate high was reached with the beginning of the digital era in 2002.

Since then, the amount of data started growing exponentially. The industry suddenly couldn’t calculate this number, and companies were unable to make sense of it all. 

The 2012 World Economic Forum in Davos talked about this matter on a large scale. After the forum, the official site pulished the document named “Big Data, Big Impact”. This report shows the concerns about this issue. They say that Big Data is a significant matter and must be considered more seriously. 

At the same time, the most influential and important people in the world of business declared data to be a new economic asset – meaning companies, governments, and other entities will be able to treat it as seriously as currencies or gold.

How much data is there in the world?

The production of data in the world is enormous today. The big data statistics show that every day, people around the world create an amazing number of 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. In 2018, according to IDC, there were 18 zettabytes of data in the world. No one knows what exactly this number is because it’s impossible to calculate it. The predictions are that in 2025 this number will reach 175 zettabytes.

An interesting fact coming from their report is the attempt to explain how much this really is – they say, if you put all this information on DVDs, you’ll be able to stack them on a shelf that will be as long as 222 circles around the Earth. Do they have such big shelves in Walmart? 

The stats say that 90% of the entire data in the world was created in the last 2 years. Seems unbelievable? You better believe i! Just think about it – how much information you alone produce and collect during the day? You’re active on Facebook, you see photos on Instagram, and read this article too. Let’s not even mention everything you see around you while you are walking down the street on your way to work – ads, sales, new products, new inventions – all this is data that is being generated. 

Do you know that Facebook alone generates around 4 million likes a minute? Do you know that 250 billion photos have been shared on this platform? Just a reminder, there are “only” 7.53 billion people in the world. Of them, 1.5 billion are active on Facebook every single day. It is said that this social network generates 4 petabytes of data daily. By the way, one petabyte is equal to around 1000 terabytes. 

Why is Big Data important?

One Forbes article claims that businesses who use Big Data, Cloud, and Mobility strategies are having 53% more growth than the competition. These companies hire top-notch data analysts who manage to gather all the Big Data and pick the most important information that the company will find use of.

They are using this for improving customer retention, creating better ads, and other business needs. Even the government started the Open Data project in 2009 when they created a specialized site for sharing data with the people. Everyone together is finally beginning to make some sense of all this extremely large and confusing world and are putting it in use for the good of humanity.

Is there anyone who can find its way through the Big Data world?

Nope. No human can be so fast and capable of managing all the information in the world in such a short time as one’s lifetime. An interesting fact says that if every person in the world starts simultaneously downloading the entire data in the world, it will take 81 days until it’s completely done. 

However, there’s someone who can – computers. Today’s Artificial Intelligence Computers can work so fast and learn so much valuable information that it may be the future of data analysis and putting this feature in use for the companies.

Even though we live in a time that can be accepted as the dawn of these technologies, we can clearly see the bright light coming for them. AI, Big Data, VR, IoT, Cloud computing are all technologies that work in entirely different environments and had different paths since their birth until today. In the near future, it’s sure that they are going to merge their paths as all of them will be needed to each other.

Conclusion

It’s a little complex for some people to understand what Big Data really is. This is normal. We’re dealing with some pretty imaginable numbers here and terminology that not everyone had the chance to encounter in their lives. 

This is not stopping the top of the class analysts from diving into the ocean of information and making use of it. Companies pay enormous sums for those who can make sense of the Big Data and make it more simple for the other company sectors. The analysts create a lot of profit. It is said that by the year 2023, this industry will be worth $77 billion. 

All this explains a lot about the Big Data industry. Those who will be brave enough and highly competent to implement it properly – will also see major benefits from it. The ones who’ll do it later will certainly ask themselves – why did we miss this opportunity?