Ohlhorst - Big data analytics: turning big data into big money

Contents

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data :

Ohlhorst, Frank, 1964

Big data analytics : turning big data into big money / Frank Ohlhorst.

p. cm. (Wiley & SAS business series)

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-118-14759-7 (cloth) ISBN 978-1-118-22582-0 (ePDF) ISBN 978-1-118-26380-8 (Mobi) ISBN 978-1-118-23904-9 (ePub)

1. Business intelligence. 2. Data mining. I. Title.

HD38.7.O36 2013

658.4'72dc23

2012030191

Preface

What are data? This seems like a simple enough question; however, depending on the interpretation, the definition of data can be anything from something recorded to everything under the sun. Data can be summed up as everything that is experienced, whether it is a machine recording information from sensors, an individual taking pictures, or a cosmic event recorded by a scientist. In other words, everything is data. However, recording and preserving that data has always been the challenge, and technology has limited the ability to capture and preserve data.

The human brains memory storage capacity is supposed to be around 2.5 petabytes (or 1 million gigabytes). Think of it this way: If your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to hold 3 million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all of that storage space. The available technology for storing data fails in comparison, creating a technology segment called Big Data that is growing exponentially.