Big Data Analytics: Not Just for Big Business Anymore

by Seshu Edala

So much data and so little business intelligence. That’s the irony of the information age, which is adding another 2.5 quintillion bytes to the data universe each day. Companies can either get buried by this avalanche of big data or use technology tools to mine its riches. This ability to access and analyze endless sources and types of structured and unstructured data – such as social media chatter, commercial transactions, financial market data, GPS trails, genomics – is revolutionizing marketing and transforming entire industries.

Because of its scope, big data has largely been the province of big businesses with big data centers. Large corporations have invested armies of data specialists and fantastic sums of money in big data. Those that harness big data can make highly data-driven business decisions, and respond and adapt to changing market conditions more quickly than their competitors. Marketing departments and ad agencies use big data to target customers with increasing granularity and accuracy.

Read Full Story on Forbes.com