The ABCs of Big DataAnd what it means to your organization

You’ve probably heard the term “big data” but do you know how big it really is — and how it can affect your business? Every day we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. According to IBM, 90% of the data in the world today was created in the last two years alone. Whether it’s social media posts, digital pictures and videos, customer data, transaction records, cell phone data, GPS signals, or any other kind of digital process, it’s all part of big data.

“Big” data is data that’s too large and complex for average databases to capture, manage, and process. It’s high-volume, high-velocity, and/or high-variety. And it comes from sensors, devices, video/audio, networks, log files, transactional applications, web, and/or social media; often generated in real time.

How can you harness the power of big data to enhance your organization, increase customer loyalty, gain significant competitive advantages, and more? To extract meaningful value from big data, you need optimal processing power as well as analytics capabilities. Here, we’ve briefly outlined the definitions and benefits of some of the key terms you should be familiar with as you explore big data.

Big Data and Analytics PlatformsInstead of using individual products for managing and analyzing big data, experts often recommend establishing a platform. The key benefit here is scalability: you can start with one capability and easily add others as your big data needs continue to grow and change. The right big data and analytics platform will help you to:

> Improve performance across multiple departments and projects while lowering administrative, storage, development, and server costs

> Achieve extreme speed with capabilities optimized for analytics > Optimize your systems for the current workload > Implement a system and have it up and running very quickly

Your platform allows you to cost-effectively explore and discover new data as well as new relationships and correlations. And your big data and analytics platform becomes a key source of valuable insights that were not previously possible.

Business IntelligenceBusiness intelligence (BI) gives you the “big picture” for your business; it takes raw data and funnels it into useful, meaningful information. You can get reports and scorecards that describe your past performance, detail your current state, and even understand trends to predict future performance. BI usually extends throughout the organization, so people in virtually all roles can explore and interact with information and share their insights with others. Depending on the size of your operation – and the size of your big data – you may need high-performance business intelligence. This enables you to analyze your bulk data rapidly when conventional IT systems aren’t capable of handling it. In some cases, solutions that combine analysis software with specially tailored and optimized hardware result in substantially faster analyses.

BI may also involve data visualization: bringing the individual components together for a comprehensive picture. You can start with a simple customer data set and scale it, adding more views of that customer, including those from big data. Interactive visualizations will also help you gain greater insight from your big data.You can even get BI while you’re on the road, mobile apps deliver vital information wherever and whenever you need it. Use your tablet or smartphone to see reports, analyses, dashboards, and more.

Using BI can give you: > A competitive advantage: Stay ahead of or set trends in your industry > More accurate, more confident decisions: Validate your existing practices and policies,

and see what’s likely to happen next > Better data discovery: Explore patterns and trends in your structured and unstructured data

Big Data AnalyticsIn general, analytics give you stronger insights into your business that can drive better decision making. It looks at your operations and the factors that affect you, from your supply chain to your customer base, to your competitors, and much more. When done properly, data analytics can transform your business.

Predictive analytics takes analytics a step further, using historical data to create models that show the likelihood of specific outcomes. It shows you what a stituation will look like in the future if current data trends continue. You can improve performance by analyzing data such as customer comments, opinions, and transactions.

Pairing big data platforms and data analytics allows you to use advanced analytic techniques for larger, diverse datasets, including text analytics, machine learning, predictive analytics, data mining, statistics and natural language processing.

RegionalRank

Region Renewal Retention

1 Midwest 17,682

2 Northeast 17,315

3 West 14,061

4 Southwest 13,061

5 Northwest 7,933

NationalRank

State Region Renewed Count

1 CA Southwest 3,201

2 MO Midwest 2,697

3 AK Northwest 2,518

4 DE Northeast 2,418

5 HI Southwest 2,322

Insurance Company Analytics | Regional AnalysisNew Business | Renewal Retention

Insurance Company Analytics | Regional AnalysisNew Business | Renewal Retention

This allows you to make better, faster business decisions because you are able to analyze previously untapped data sources to gain new insights. Properly analyzing zettabytes of data can help you to align tactical and strategic decision making to achieve your business goals. Analytics will help you to:

> Move from insight to action more quickly > Gain confidence in your business decisions at every level > Find new insights in previously uncharted territory > Secure a competitive advantage > Attract new customers while increasing customer loyalty > Prepare for probable future conditions and outcomes

Data Integration and Data QualityTo use big data effectively, you need to integrate it, bringing together multiple data streams from diverse sources. The goal here is to make the information that results from the data available to everyone in your organization who needs it and has clearance to access it. At the same time, you must maintain the quality of your data and keep it secure throughout its life cycle and across your various teams.

Properly integrating and managing your data quality will allow you to: > Analyze information: Explore your data and its relationships > Enhance information: Ensure that it is accurate, current, and consistent > Accelerate information: Move projects ahead quickly — and keep them

moving in the right direction — with confidence Essextec, in partnership with Gemini Systems, can develop a big data and data analytics platform for you that also ties in with your data management and data security solutions. And it can be provided using the cloud — so you won’t need additional on-site storage.

Our recommendations will be specifically tailored to your organization’s needs. We draw from IBM’s next generation business analytics solutions, including:

Recommended Solutions

IBM® InfoSphere® Platform

the foundation for building a big data

solution

IBM® Cognos® Business Intelligence software with reporting,

analysis, dashboards, and scorecarding

capabilities

IBM® InfoSphere® BigInsights™

for managing and analyzing big data

IBM® SPSS® for detailed predictive

analysis

IBM® DB2 database software that’s

reliable and scalable

à IBM® PureData System

optimized exclusively for delivering data services for today’s demanding

applications

With our team of experienced business consultants, professionally certified technologyand risk exerts, and industry thought leaders, Essextec delivers innovative, end-to-endbusiness and security solutions that encompass infrastructure, software, consulting, andservices. The result? Outstanding business outcomes for each and every one of our clients.

Organizations that lead in analytics outperform those just beginningby 3.6x

By 2020 there will be more digital data than all thegrains of sand on the earth

Connected devicesby 2020

Business Analytics Stats

Unstructuredglobal data

22B

80%

Data by20158ZB

75% Leaders cite growth as the key source from analytics

Leaders have predictive analytics capabilities

Leaders have some form ofshared analytics resources*

60%

85%

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Discover how Essextec can deliver big data business intelligence for your business.

Visit essextec.com, email us at exceed@essextec.com, or call 1-888-519-1518.

* Source: “Analytics: A blueprint for value - Converting big data and analytics insights into results” - IBM Institue for Business Value