Businesses do not realise the scale of big data
There was a time when collecting data consisted of carrying out surveys, getting people to fill out forms with their personal details and keeping records of any past deals for the sake of financial, legal or marketing documentation.
But as the internet has expanded and online activity has increased, the collation of information has grown rapidly. Whether it’s social media websites, ecommerce behaviour or even browsing trends, the array of information that organisations now retrieve, store and attempt to process has far outgrown the levels seen in the past.
And while the reams of data that companies now have access to is considered to stand them in good stead for being able to react to past, current and emerging trends, the issue of what is called ‘big data’ poses a number of problems due to the sheer volume of records that businesses now possess.
That’s according to Waqas Hashemi, programme director of the Big Data Analytics 2012 event at whitehallmedia.co.uk/bda, who said: "It is like the big data revolution is only just starting. It is clear that big data is more than a marketing hype. It is a genuinely growing problem.
"Business intelligence tools haven’t taken into account the fact that the data is now so massive."
With a wide range of potential difficulties to consider when it comes to accurately coordinating data in a way that an organisation can actually benefit from collecting the information, it seems that there are a variety of challenges to be met if businesses are to take advantage of their records.
Data management storage systems and backing up files are both considered a good means to effectively arrange documents in a way that makes them easily obtainable, as well as ensuring that they are not lost to the ether in the event of any unexpected attacks, and could be one way to address the big data issue.