Frank J. Ohlhorst - Big data analytics: turning big data into big money

Contents

WILEY & SAS BUSINESS SERIES

The Wiley & SAS Business Series presents books that help senior-level managers with their critical management decisions.

Titles in the Wiley and SAS Business Series include:

Cover image: @liangpv/iStockphoto

Cover design: Michael Rutkowski

Copyright 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com . Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com . For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com .

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.