Story of Big Data

In ancient days, people used to travel from one village to another village on a horse
driven cart, but as the time passed, villages became towns and people spread out.
The distance to travel from one town to the other town also increased. So, it became
a problem to travel between towns, along with the luggage. Out of the blue, one smart
fella suggested, we should groom and feed a horse more, to solve this problem. When
I look at this solution, it is not that bad, but do you think a horse can become an
elephant? I don’t think so. Another smart guy said, instead of 1 horse pulling the cart,
let us have 4 horses to pull the same cart. What do you guys think of this solution? I
think it is a fantastic solution. Now, people can travel large distances in less time and
even carry more luggage.

The same concept applies on Big Data. Big Data says, till today, we were okay with
storing the data into our servers because the volume of the data was pretty limited,
and the amount of time to process this data was also okay. But now in this current
technological world, the data is growing too fast and people are relying on the data a
lot of times. Also the speed at which the data is growing, it is becoming impossible to
store the data into any server.

Big Data Driving Factors

The quantity of data on planet earth is growing exponentially for many reasons.
Various sources and our day to day activities generates lots of data. With the invent
of the web, the whole world has gone online, every single thing we do leaves a digital
trace. With the smart objects going online, the data growth rate has increased rapidly.
The major sources of Big Data are social media sites, sensor networks, digital
images/videos, cell phones, purchase transaction records, web logs, medical records,
archives, military surveillance, eCommerce, complex scientific research and so on. All
these information amounts to around some Quintillion bytes of data. By 2020, the data
volumes will be around 40 Zettabytes which is equivalent to adding every single grain
of sand on the planet multiplied by seventy-five.

What is Big Data?

Big Data is a term used for a collection of data sets that are large and complex,
which is difficult to store and process using available database management tools or
traditional data processing applications. The challenge includes capturing, curating,
storing, searching, sharing, transferring, analyzing and visualization of this data.

Big Data Characteristics

The five characteristics that define Big Data are: Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity
and Value.

1. VOLUME
Volume refers to the ‘amount of data’, which is growing day by day at a very
fast pace. The size of data generated by humans, machines and their
interactions on social media itself is massive. Researchers have predicted that
40 Zettabytes (40,000 Exabytes) will be generated by 2020, which is an
increase of 300 times from 2005.

2. VELOCITY
Velocity is defined as the pace at which different sources generate the data
every day. This flow of data is massive and continuous. There are 1.03 billion
Daily Active Users (Facebook DAU) on Mobile as of now, which is an increase
of 22% year-over-year. This shows how fast the number of users are growing
on social media and how fast the data is getting generated daily. If you are able
to handle the velocity, you will be able to generate insights and take decisions
based on real-time
 data.

3. VARIETY
As there are many sources which are contributing to Big Data, the type of data
they are generating is different. It can be structured, semi-structured or
unstructured. Hence, there is a variety of data which is getting generated every
day. Earlier, we used to get the data from excel and databases, now the data
are coming in the form of images, audios, videos, sensor data etc. as shown in
below image. Hence, this variety of unstructured data creates problems in
capturing, storage, mining and analyzing the data.

4. VERACITY
Veracity refers to the data in doubt or uncertainty of data available due to data
inconsistency and incompleteness. In the image below, you can see that few
values are missing in the table. Also, a few values are hard to accept, for
example – 15000 minimum value in the 3rd row, it is not possible.
This inconsistency and incompleteness is Veracity.

Data available can sometimes get messy and maybe difficult to trust. With many
forms of big data, quality and accuracy are difficult to control like Twitter posts
with hashtags, abbreviations, typos and colloquial speech. The volume is often
the reason behind for the lack of quality and accuracy in the data.

 Due to uncertainty of data, 1 in 3 business leaders don’t trust the information

they use to make decisions.
  It was found in a survey that 27% of respondents were unsure of how much of
their data was inaccurate.
 Poor data quality costs the US economy around $3.1 trillion a year.

5. VALUE
After discussing Volume, Velocity, Variety and Veracity, there is another V
that should be taken into account when looking at Big Data i.e. Value. It is all
well and good to have access to big data but unless we can turn it into value it
is useless. By turning it into value I mean, Is it adding to the benefits of the
organizations who are analyzing big data? Is the organization working on Big
Data achieving high ROI (Return On Investment)? Unless, it adds to their
profits by working on Big Data, it is useless.

As discussed in Variety, there are different types of data which is getting generated
every day. So, let us now understand the types of data:

Types of Big Data

Big Data could be of three types:

 Structured
 Semi-Structured
 Unstructured

1. Structured
The data that can be stored and processed in a fixed format is called as
Structured Data. Data stored in a relational database management system
(RDBMS) is one example of ‘structured’ data. It is easy to process structured
data as it has a fixed schema. Structured Query Language (SQL) is often used
to manage such kind of Data.

2. Semi-Structured
Semi-Structured Data is a type of data which does not have a formal structure
of a data model, i.e. a table definition in a relational DBMS, but nevertheless it
has some organizational properties like tags and other markers to separate
semantic elements that makes it easier to analyze. XML files or JSON
documents are examples of semi-structured data.
 3. Unstructured
The data which have unknown form and cannot be stored in RDBMS and
cannot be analyzed unless it is transformed into a structured format is called as
unstructured data. Text Files and multimedia contents like images, audios,
videos are example of unstructured data. The unstructured data is growing
quicker than others, experts say that 80 percent of the data in an organization
are unstructured.

Till now, I have just covered the introduction of Big Data. Furthermore, this Big Data
tutorial talks about examples, applications and challenges in Big Data. You can even
check out the details of Big Data with the Azure Data Engineering Training in Australia.

Examples of Big Data

Daily we upload millions of bytes of data. 90 % of the world’s data has been created
in last two years.

Applications of Big Data

We cannot talk about data without talking about the people, people who are getting
benefited by Big Data applications. Almost all the industries today are leveraging Big
Data applications in one or the other way.
 Smarter Healthcare: Making use of the petabytes of patient’s data, the
organization can extract meaningful information and then build applications that
can predict the patient’s deteriorating condition in advance.

 Telecom: Telecom sectors collects information, analyzes it and provide

solutions to different problems. By using Big Data applications, telecom
companies have been able to significantly reduce data packet loss, which
occurs when networks are overloaded, and thus, providing a seamless
connection to their customers.

 Retail: Retail has some of the tightest margins, and is one of the greatest
beneficiaries of big data. The beauty of using big data in retail is to understand
consumer behavior. Amazon’s recommendation engine provides suggestion
based on the browsing history of the consumer.

 Traffic control: Traffic congestion is a major challenge for many cities globally.
Effective use of data and sensors will be key to managing traffic better as cities
become increasingly densely populated.

 Manufacturing: Analyzing big data in the manufacturing industry can reduce

component defects, improve product quality, increase efficiency, and save time
and money.

 Search Quality: Every time we are extracting information from google, we are
simultaneously generating data for it. Google stores this data and uses it to
improve its search quality.
What Is Big Data Architecture?

To see how data flows through its systems and ensure that it’s
managed properly and meets business needs for information, we
need well-structured Big Data architecture. Data architecture is one
of the domains of enterprise architecture, connecting business
strategy and technical implementation. If it’s well-structured, it
allows companies to:

 Transform unstructured data for analysis and compiling

reports;

 Record, process and analyze unconnected streams in real-

time or with low latency;

 Conduct more accurate analysis, make informed decisions,

and reduce costs.

In practical terms, Big Data architecture can be seen as a model for

data collection, storage, processing, and transformation for
subsequent analysis or visualization. The choice of an architectural
model depends on the basic purpose of the information system and
the context of its application, including the levels of processes and IT
maturity, as well as the technologies currently available.

The most known paradigms are ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) and
ELT (Extract, Load Transform) in conjunction with data lake,
lakehouse, and data warehouse approaches.
Big Data Architecture Components

There are a number of Big Data architecture components or layers.

The key layers include data ingestion, storage, processing, analytics,
and application, from the bottom to the top. Let’s take a closer look
at these Big Data components to understand what architectural
models consist of.

Components of Big Data architecture

1. Data Sources

Data sources, as the name suggests, are the sources of data for
systems based on Big Data architecture. These sources include
software and hardware capable of collecting and storing data. The
variety of data collection methods depends directly on the source.

The most common data sources are:

 Relational databases (Oracle, PostgreSQL., etc.)

 NoSQL solutions (Document, Key/Value, Graph databases)

 Time-series databases (TimescaleDB, InfluxDB)

  File systems such as cloud storages, FTP/NFS/SMB
storages

 Distributed files systems (HDFS, AWS EFS, etc.)

 Search engines (Elastic Search)

 Message queues (RabbitMQ, Kafka, Redis)

 Enterprise systems accessed via API

 Legacy enterprise systems like mainframes

Each data source can hold one or more types of data:

 Structured data is data arranged around a predefined

schema (various databases, existing archives, enterprise
internal systems, etc.)

 Unstructured data is data not structured according to a

predefined data model (GPS, audio and video files, text
files, etc.)

 Semi-structured data refers to data that doesn’t conform to

the structure of a data model but still has definite
classifying characteristics (internal system event logs,
network services, XML, etc.)

2. Data Ingestion

As described above, data can be stored initially in any external

system as a data source for a Big Data architecture platform. In
addition, data can already exist in any data source or can be
generated in real time.
The first step is to extract data from an external system or a data
source and ingest it into a Big Data architecture platform for
subsequent processing. It practically means the following:

 Collect data from an external data source using pull or push

approach

 The pull approach is when your Big Data platform retrieves

bulk data or individual records from an external data
source. Data is usually collected in batches if the external
data source supports it. In this case the system can control
better the amount and throughout of ingested data per unit
of time.

 Push approach is when an external data source pushes data

into your Big Data platform. It is usually delivered as real
time events and messages. In this case the system should
support high ingestion rate or use intermediate
buffer/event log solutions like Apache Kafka as internal
storage.

 Persist data in a data lake, lakehouse, or distributed data

storage as raw data. Raw data means that data has its
original format and view and it guarantees that subsequent
processing does not lose original information.

 Transfer data to the next processing layer in the form of

bulk items (batch processing) or individual messages for
real-time processing (with or without intermediate data
persistence).

3. Data Processing or Transformation

The next step is processing or transformation of previously ingested
data. The main objectives of such activity include:

 Transforming data into structured data format based on

predefined schema

 Enriching and cleaning data, converting data into the

required format

 Performing data aggregation

 Ingesting data into an analytical database, storage, data

lake, lakehouse, or data warehouse

 Transforming data from raw format into intermediate

format for further processing

 Implementing Machine or Deep Learning analysis and

predictions

Depending on project requirements, there are different approaches

to data processing:

 Batch processing

 Near real-time stream processing

 Real-time stream processing

Let’s review each type in details below.

3.1. Batch Processing

After storing a dataset over a period of time, it moves to the
processing stage. Batch processing presupposes that algorithms
process and analyze datasets previously stored in an intermediate
distributed data storage like a data lake, lakehouse, or a distributed
file system.

As a rule, batch processing is used when data can be processed in

chunks or batches on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis and end users
can wait results for some time. Batch processing allows processing
data more effectively from resource perspective but it increases
latency when data is available after processing for storage,
processing, and analysis.

3.2. Stream Processing

Incoming data can also be presented as a continuous stream of

events from any external data source, which is usually pushed to the
Big Data ingestion layer. In this case data is ingested and processed
directly by consumers in the form of individual messages.

This approach is used when the end user or external system should
see or use the result of computations almost immediately. The
advantage of this approach is high efficiency from resource point of
view per message and low latency to process data in near real-time
manner.

3.2.1 Near Real-Time Stream Processing

If according to non-functional requirements incoming messages can

be processed with latency measured in seconds, near real-time
stream processing is the way to go. This type of streaming allows to
process individual events in small micro-batches, combining close
items together in a processing window as micro-batch. For example,
Spark Streaming processes streams in this way, finding balance
between latency, resource utilization and overall solution
complexity.

3.2.2 Real-Time Stream Processing

When a system is required to process data in a real-time manner,

then processing is optimized to achieve millisecond latency. These
optimizations include memory processing, caching, asynchronous
persistence of input/output results in addition to classical near real-
time stream processing.

Real-time stream processing allows to process individual events with

a maximum throughput per unit of time but with additional
resources like memory and CPU. For example, Apache Flink
processes each event immediately, applying the approaches
mentioned above.

4. Analytics and Reporting

The majority of Big Data solutions are built in a way that facilitates
further analysis and reporting in order to gain valuable insights. The
analysis reports should be presented in a user-friendly format
(tables, diagrams, typewritten text, etc.), meaning that the results
should be visualized. Depending on the type and complexity of
visualization, additional programs, services, or add-ons can be
added to the system (table or multidimensional cube models,
analytical notebooks, etc.).

To achieve this goal, ingested and transformed data should be

persisted in an analytical data store, solution, or database in the
appropriate format or structure optimized for faster ad-hoc queries,
quick access and scalability to support large number of users.

Let’s see a couple of typical approaches.

The first popular approach is data warehouses, which is in essence a

database optimized for read operations using column-based storage,
optimized reporting schema and SQL Engine. This approach is
usually applied when the data structure is known in advance and
sub-second query latency is critical to support rich reporting
functionality and ad-hoc user queries. For example, AWS Redshift,
HP Vertika, Click House, Citrus PostgreSQL.

The next popular approach is data lakes. The original goal of a data
lake was to democratize access to data for different uses cases,
including machine learning algorithms, reporting, post-processing
of data on the same ingested raw data. It works but with some
limitations. This approach simplifies the complexity of overall
solutions because a data warehouse is not required by default, so
less tools and data transformations are needed. However, the
performance of engines used for reporting is significantly lower even
for Parget, Delta, Iceberg optimized formats. A typical example of
this approach is the Classical Apache Spark setup which persists
ingested data in Delta or Iceberg format and Pesto Query Engine.
The last trend is to combine both previous approaches in one and it
is known as a lakehouse. In essence, the idea is to have a data lake
with highly optimized data format and storage and SQL vector-
based engine similar to data warehouses but based on Delta format
which supports ACID/versions. For example, Data Bricks Enterprise
version achieved performance for typical reporting queries better
than classical data warehouse solutions.

Data warehouse vs data lake vs data lakehouse — Image by author, inspired by the source

5. Orchestration

Mostly, Big Data analytics solutions have similar repetitive business

processes which include data collection, transfer, processing,
uploading in analytical data stores, or direct transmission to the
report. That’s why companies leverage orchestration technology to
automate and optimize all the stages of data analysis.

Different Big Data tools can be used in this area depending on goals
and skills.
The first level of abstraction is Big Data processing solutions
themself described in the data transformation section. They usually
have orchestration mechanisms where a pipeline and its logic are
implemented in code directly based on the functional programing
paradigm. For example, Spark, Apache Flink, Apache Beam all have
such functionality. This level of abstraction is very functional but
requires programing skills and deep knowledge of Big Data
processing solutions.

The next level is orchestration frameworks, which is still based on

writing code to implement the flow of steps for an automated
process but these Big Data tools require basic knowledge of language
to just link steps between each other without special knowledge how
specific step or component is implemented. So, such tools have a list
of predefined steps with the ability to be extended by advanced
users. For example, Apache Airflow or Ludgi are popular choices for
many people who work with data but have limited programing
knowledge.

The last level is end-user GUI editors that allow to create

orchestration flows and business processes using just a rich editor
with graphical components, which should be linked visually and
configured via component properties. BPMN notations are often
used for such tools in conjunction with custom components to
process data.

Types of Big Data Architecture

To efficiently handle customer requests and perform tasks well,
applications have to interact with the warehouse. In a nutshell, we’ll
look at two most popular Big Data architectures, known as Lambda
and Kappa, that serve as the basis for various corporate applications.

1. Lambda has been the key Big Data architecture. It

separates real-time and batch processing where batch
processing is used to ensure consistency. This approach
allows implementing most application scenarios. But for
the most part, the batch and stream levels work with
different cases, while their internal processing logic is
almost the same. Thus, data and code duplications may
happen, which becomes a source of numerous errors.

2. For this reason, the Kappa architecture was introduced,

which consumes fewer resources but is great for real-time
processing. Kappa is based on Lambda combining stream
and batch processing models but information is stored in
the data lake. The essence of this architecture is to optimize
data processing by applying the same set of code for both
processing models. It facilitates management and unifies
the problem of calibration.

Lambda architecture
Lambda architecture — Image by author, inspired by the source

Kappa architecture

Kappa architecture — Image by author, inspired by the source

Big Data Tools and Techniques

Analysts use various Big Data tools to monitor current market

trends, clients’ needs and preferences, and other information vital
for business growth. When building a solution for clients, we always
take into consideration all these factors, offering Big Data services of
supreme quality and providing you with the most profitable product.
Let’s take a glimpse at the most common Big Data tools and
techniques used nowadays:

Distributed Storage and Processing Tools

Accommodating and analysing expanding volumes of diverse data

requires distributed database technologies. Distributed databases
are infrastructures that can split data across multiple physical
servers allowing multiple computers to be used anywhere. Some of
the most widespread processing and distribution tools include:

Hadoop

Big Data will be difficult to process without Hadoop. It’s not only a
storage system, but also a set of utilities, libraries, frameworks, and
development distributions.

Hadoop consists of four components:

1. HDFS — a distributed file system designed to run on

standard hardware and provide instant access to data
across Hadoop clusters.

2. MapReduce — a distributed computing model used for

parallel processing in different cluster computing
environments.

3. YARN — a technology designed to manage clusters and use

their resources for scheduling users’ applications.

4. Libraries for other HDFS modules

Spark

Spark is a solution capable of processing real-time, batch, and

memory data for quick results. The tool can run on a local system,
which facilitates testing and development. Today, this powerful
open-source Big Data tool is one of the most important in the
arsenal of top-performing companies.

Spark is created for a wide range of tasks such as batch applications,

iterative algorithms, interactive queries, and machine learning. This
makes it suitable for both amateur use and professional processing
of large amounts of data.

No-SQL Databases

No-SQL databases differ from traditional SQL-based databases in

that they support flexible schemes. This simplifies handling vast
amounts of all types of information — especially unstructured and
semi-structured data that are poorly suited for strict SQL systems.

Here are four main No-SQL categories adopted in businesses:

1. Document-Oriented DB stores data elements in structures

like documents.

2. Graph DB connects data into graph-like structures to

emphasize the relationships between information elements.

3. Key-value DB combines unique keys and related Big Data

components into a relatively simple easily-scalable model.
 4. Column-based DB stores information in tables that can
contain many columns to handle a huge amount of
elements.

MPP

A feature of the Massive parallel processing (MPP) architecture is

the physical partitioning of data memory combined into a cluster.
When data is received, only the necessary records are selected and
the rest are eliminated to not take up space in RAM, which speeds
up disk reading and processing of results. Predictive analytics,
regular reporting, corporate data warehousing (CDW), and
calculating churn rate are some of the typical applications of MPP.

Cloud Computing Tools

Clouds can be used in the initial phase of working with Big Data, in
conducting experiments with data and testing hypotheses. It’s easier
to test new assumptions and technologies, you don’t need your own
infrastructure. Clouds make it faster and cheaper to launch a
solution into industrial operations with certain requirements, such
as data storage reliability, infrastructure performance, and others. In
this way, more companies are moving their Big Data to clouds that
are scalable and flexible.

5 Things to Consider When Choosing Big Data

Architecture

When choosing a database solution, you have to bear in mind the

following factors:
1. Data Requirements

Before launching a Big Data solution, find out which processing type
(real-time or batch) will be more suitable for your business to
achieve the highest entry speed and extract the relevant data for
analysis. Don’t overlook such requirements as response time,
accuracy and consistency, and fault-tolerance that play the crucial
role in the data analytics process.

2. Stakeholders’ Needs

Identify your key external stakeholders and study their information

needs to help them achieve mission-critical goals. This presupposes
that the choice of a data strategy must be based on a comprehensive
needs analysis of the stakeholders to bring about benefits to
everyone.

3. Data Retention Periods

Data volumes keep growing exponentially, which makes its storage

far more expensive and complicated. To prevent these losses, you
must determine the period within which each data set can bring
value to your business and, thereby, be retained.

4. Open-Source or Commercial Big Data Tools

Open-source analytics tools will work best for you if you have the
people and the skills to work with it. This software is more tailorable
to your business needs as your staff can add features, updates, and
other adjustments and improvements at any moment.
In case you don’t have enough staff to maintain your analytics
platform — opting for a commercial tool can boost more tangible
outcomes. Here, you depend on a software vendor but you get
regular updates, tool improvements, and can use their support
services to solve arising problems.

5. Continuous Evolution

The Big Data landscape is quickly changing as the technologies keep

evolving, introducing new capabilities and offering advanced
performance and scalability. In addition, your data needs are
certainly evolving, too.

Make sure that your Big Data approach accounts for these changes
meaning that your Big Data solution should make it easy to
introduce any enhancements like integrate new data sources, add
new custom modules, or implement additional security measures if
needed.

Big Data Architecture Challenges

If built correctly, Big Data architecture can save money and help
predict important trends, but as a ground-breaking technology, it
has some pitfalls.
Big Data Architecture Challenges — Image by author, inspired by the source

Budget Requirement

A Big Data project can often be held back by the cost of adopting Big
Data architecture. Your budget requirements can vary significantly
depending on the type of Big Data application architecture, its
components and tools, management and maintenance activities, as
well as whether you build your Big Data application in-house or
outsource it to a third-party vendor. To overcome this challenge,
companies need to carefully analyze their needs and plan their
budget accordingly.

Data Quality

When information comes from different sources, it’s necessary to

ensure consistency of the data formats and avoid duplication.
Companies have to sort out and prepare data for further analysis
with other data types.

Scalability

The value of Big Data lies in its quantity but it can also become an
issue. If your Big Data architecture isn’t ready to expand, problems
may soon arise.

 If infrastructure isn’t managed, the cost of its maintenance

will increase hurting the company’s budget.

 If a company doesn’t plan to expand, its productivity may

fall significantly.

Both of these issues need to be addressed at the planning stage.

Security

Cyberthreats are a common problem since hackers are very

interested in corporate data. They may try to add their fake
information or view corporate data to obtain confidential
information. Thus, a robust security system should be built to
protect sensitive information.
Skills Shortage

The industry is facing a shortage of data analysts due to a lack of

experience and necessary skills in aspirants. Fortunately, this
problem is solvable today by outsourcing your Big Data architecture
problems to an expert team that has broad experience and can build
a fit-for-purpose solution to drive business performance.
Big data analytics raises several ethical issues, especially as
companies begin monetizing their data externally for purposes
different from those for which the data was initially collected. The
scale and ease with which analytics can be conducted today
completely change the ethical framework. We can now do things
that were impossible a few years ago, and existing ethical and legal
frameworks cannot prescribe what we should do. While there is still
no black or white, experts agree on a few principles:

1. Private customer data and identity should remain

private: Privacy does not mean secrecy, as personal data
might need to be audited based on legal requirements, but
that private data obtained from a person with their consent
should not be exposed for use by other businesses or
individuals with any traces to their identity.

2. Shared private information should be treated

confidentially: Third-party companies share sensitive
data — medical, financial or locational — and need
restrictions on whether and how that information can be
shared further.

3. Customers should have a transparent view of how

our data is being used or sold and the ability to manage the
flow of their private information across massive, third-
party analytical systems.

4. Big Data should not interfere with human will: Big

data analytics can moderate and even determine who we
are before we make up our minds. Companies need to
 consider the kind of predictions and inferences that should
be allowed and those that should not.

5. Big data should not institutionalize unfair

biases like racism or sexism. Machine learning algorithms
can absorb unconscious biases in a population and amplify
them via training samples.
WHAT IS A BIG DATA PLATFORM?
A big data platform acts as an organized storage medium for large amounts
of data. Big data platforms utilize a combination of data management
hardware and software tools to store aggregated data sets, usually onto the
cloud.

Big Data Platforms to Know

GOOGLE CLOUD

Google Cloud offers lots of big data management tools, each with its own
specialty. BigQuery warehouses petabytes of data in an easily queried
format. Dataflow analyzes ongoing data streams and batches of historical
data side by side. With Google Data Studio, clients can turn varied data into
custom graphics.

MICROSOFT AZURE

Users can analyze data stored on Microsoft’s Cloud platform, Azure, with a
broad spectrum of open-source Apache technologies, including Hadoop
and Spark. Azure also features a native analytics tool, HDInsight, that
streamlines data cluster analysis and integrates seamlessly with Azure’s
other data tools.
AMAZON WEB SERVICES

Best known as AWS, Amazon’s cloud-based platform comes with analytics

tools that are designed for everything from data prep and warehousing to
SQL queries and data lake design. All the resources scale with your data as
it grows in a secure cloud-based environment. Features include
customizable encryption and the option of a virtual private cloud.

SNOWFLAKE

Snowflake is a data warehouse used for storage, processing and analysis. It

runs completely atop the public cloud infrastructures — Amazon Web
Services, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure — and combines with
a new SQL query engine. Built like a SaaS product, everything about its
architecture is deployed and managed on the cloud.

CLOUDERA

Rooted in Apache’s Hadoop, Cloudera can handle massive amounts of data.

Clients routinely store more than 50 petabytes in Cloudera’s Data
Warehouse, which can manage data including machine logs, text, and
more. Meanwhile, Cloudera’s DataFlow — previously Hortonworks’
DataFlow — analyzes and prioritizes data in real time.

SUMO LOGIC

The cloud-native Sumo Logic platform offers apps — including Airbnb and
Pokémon GO — three different types of support. It troubleshoots, tracks
business analytics and catches security breaches, drawing on machine
learning for maximum efficiency. It’s also flexible and able to manage
sudden influxes of data.

SISENSE

Sisense’s data analytics platform processes data swiftly thanks to its

signature In-Chip Technology. The interface also lets clients build, use and
embed custom dashboards and analytics apps. And with its AI technology
and built-in machine learning models, Sisense enables clients to identify
future business opportunities.

TABLEAU

The Tableau platform — available on-premises or in the cloud — allows

users to find correlations, trends and unexpected interdependences
between data sets. The Data Management add-on further enhances the
platform, allowing for more granular data cataloging and the tracking of
data lineage.

COLLIBRA

Designed to accommodate the needs of banking, healthcare and other data-

heavy fields, Collibra lets employees company wide find quality, relevant
data. The versatile platform features semantic search, which can find more
relevant results by unraveling contextual meanings and pronoun referents
in search phrases.
TALEND

Talend’s data replication product, Stitch, allows clients to quickly load data
from hundreds of sources into a data warehouse, where it’s structured and
ready for analysis. Additionally, Data Fabric, Talend’s unified data
integration solution, combines data integration with data governance and
integrity, as well as offers application and API integration.

QUALTRICS EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT

Qualtrics’ experience management platform lets companies assess the key

experiences that define their brand: customer experience; employee
experience; product experience; design experience; and the brand
experience, defined by marketing and brand awareness. Its analytics tools
turn data on employee satisfaction, marketing campaign impact and more
into actionable predictions rooted in machine learning and AI.

TERADATA

Teradata’s Vantage analytics software works with various public cloud

services, but users can also combine it with Teradata Cloud storage. This
all-Teradata experience maximizes synergy between cloud hardware and
Vantage’s machine learning and NewSQL engine capabilities. Teradata
Cloud users also enjoy special perks, like flexible pricing.

ORACLE

Oracle Cloud’s big data platform can automatically migrate diverse data
formats to cloud servers, purportedly with no downtime. The platform can
also operate on-premise and in hybrid settings, enriching and transforming
data whether it’s streaming in real time or stored in a centralized
repository, also known as a data lake. A free tier of the platform is also
available.

DOMO

Domo’s big data platform draws on clients’ full data portfolios to offer
industry-specific findings and AI-based predictions. Even when relevant
data sprawls across multiple cloud servers and hard drives, Domo clients
can gather it all in one place with Magic ETL, a drag-and-drop tool that
streamlines the integration process.

MONGODB

MongoDB doesn’t force data into spreadsheets. Instead, its cloud-based

platforms store data as flexible JSON documents — in other words, as
digital objects that can be arranged in a variety of ways, even nested inside
each other. Designed for app developers, the platforms offer of-the-moment
search functionality. For example, users can search their data for geotags
and graphs as well as text phrases.

CIVIS ANALYTICS

Civis Analytics’ cloud-based platform offers end-to-end data services, from

data ingestion to modeling and reports. Designed with data scientists in
mind, the platform integrates with GitHub to ease user collaboration and is
purportedly ultra-secure — both HIPAA-compliant and SOC 2 Type II-
certified.
ALTERYX

Alteryx’s designers built the company’s eponymous platform with simplicity

and interdepartmental collaboration in mind. Its interlocking tools allow
users to create repeatable data workflows — stripping busywork from the
data prep and analysis process — and deploy R and Python code within the
platform for quicker predictive analytics.

ZETA GLOBAL’S MARKETING PLATFORM

This platform from Zeta Global uses its database of billions of permission-
based profiles to help users optimize their omnichannel marketing efforts.
The platform’s AI features sift through the diverse data, helping marketers
target key demographics and attract new customers.

VERTICA

Vertica’s software-only SQL data warehouse is storage system-agnostic.

That means it can analyze data from cloud services, on-premise servers and
any other data storage space. Vertica works quickly thanks to columnar
storage, which facilitates the scanning of only relevant data. It offers
predictive analytics rooted in machine learning for industries that include
finance and marketing.

TREASURE DATA

Treasure Data’s customer data platform sorts morasses of web, mobile

and IoT data into rich, individualized customer profiles so marketers can
communicate with their desired demographics in a more tailored and
personalized way.
ACTIAN AVALANCHE

Actian’s cloud-native data warehouse is built for near-instantaneous results

— even if users run multiple queries at once. Backed by support from
Microsoft and Amazon’s public clouds, it can analyze data in public and
private Clouds. For easy app use, the platform comes with ready-made
connections to Salesforce, Workday and others.

GREENPLUM

Born out of the open-source Greenplum Database project, this platform

uses PostgreSQL to conquer varied data analysis and operations projects,
from quests for business intelligence to deep learning. Greenplum can
parse data housed in clouds and servers, as well as container orchestration
systems. Additionally, it comes with a built-in toolkit of extensions for
location-based analysis, document extraction and multi-node analysis.

HITACHI VANTARA’S PENTAHO

Hitachi Vantara’s data integration and analytics platform streamlines the

data ingestion process by foregoing hand coding and offering time-saving
functions like drag-and-drop integration, pre-made data transformation
templates and metadata injection. Once users add data, the platform can
mine business intelligence from any data format thanks to its data-agnostic
design.

EXASOL

The Exasol intelligent, in-memory analytics database was designed for

speed, especially on clustered systems. It can analyze all types of data —
including sensor, online transaction, location and more — via massive
parallel processing. The cloud-first platform also analyzes data stored in
appliances and can function purely as software.

IBM CLOUD

IBM’s full-stack cloud platform comes with over 170 built-in tools,
including many for customizable big data management. Users can opt for a
NoSQL or SQL database, or store their data as JSON documents, among
other database designs. The platform can also run in-memory analysis and
integrate open-source tools like Apache Spark.

MARKLOGIC

Users can import data into MarkLogic’s platform as is. Items ranging from
images and videos to JSON and RDF files coexist peaceably in the flexible
database, uploaded via a simple drag-and-drop process powered by Apache
Nifi. Organized around MarkLogic’s Universal Index, files and metadata are
easily queried. The database also integrates with a host of more intensive
analytics apps.

DATAMEER

Though it’s possible to code within Datameer’s platform, it’s not necessary.
Users can upload structured and unstructured data directly from many data
sources by following a simple wizard. From there, the point-and-click data
cleansing and built-in library of more than 270 functions — like
chronological organization and custom binning —make it easy to drill into
data even if users don’t have a computer science background.
ALIBABA CLOUD

The largest public cloud provider in China, Alibaba operates in 24 regions

worldwide, including the United States. Its popular cloud platform offers a
variety of database formats and big data tools, including data warehousing,
analytics for streaming data and speedy Elasticsearch, which can scan
petabytes of data scattered across hundreds of servers in real time.

Big Data Technology Components.

Big data analytics raises several ethical issues, especially as
companies begin monetizing their data externally for purposes
different from those for which the data was initially collected. The
scale and ease with which analytics can be conducted today
completely change the ethical framework. We can now do things
that were impossible a few years ago, and existing ethical and legal
frameworks cannot prescribe what we should do. While there is still
no black or white, experts agree on a few principles:

1. Private customer data and identity should remain

private: Privacy does not mean secrecy, as personal data
might need to be audited based on legal requirements, but
that private data obtained from a person with their consent
should not be exposed for use by other businesses or
individuals with any traces to their identity.

2. Shared private information should be treated

confidentially: Third-party companies share sensitive
data — medical, financial or locational — and need
restrictions on whether and how that information can be
shared further.

3. Customers should have a transparent view of how

our data is being used or sold and the ability to manage the
flow of their private information across massive, third-
party analytical systems.

4. Big Data should not interfere with human will: Big

data analytics can moderate and even determine who we
are before we make up our minds. Companies need to
 consider the kind of predictions and inferences that should
be allowed and those that should not.

5. Big data should not institutionalize unfair

biases like racism or sexism. Machine learning algorithms
can absorb unconscious biases in a population and amplify
them via training samples.

What is Big Data Analytics?

Big Data analytics is a process used to extract meaningful insights, such as hidden patterns,
unknown correlations, market trends, and customer preferences. Big Data analytics provides
various advantages—it can be used for better decision making, preventing fraudulent
activities, among other things.

Uses and Examples of Big Data Analytics

There are many different ways that Big Data analytics can be used in order to improve
businesses and organizations. Here are some examples:

 Using analytics to understand customer behavior in order to optimize the customer

experience

 Predicting future trends in order to make better business decisions

 Improving marketing campaigns by understanding what works and what doesn't

 Increasing operational efficiency by understanding where bottlenecks are and how

to fix them
  Detecting fraud and other forms of misuse sooner

The Lifecycle Phases of Big Data Analytics

Now, let’s review how Big Data analytics works:

 Stage 1 - Business case evaluation - The Big Data analytics lifecycle begins with a
business case, which defines the reason and goal behind the analysis.

 Stage 2 - Identification of data - Here, a broad variety of data sources are

identified.

 Stage 3 - Data filtering - All of the identified data from the previous stage is
filtered here to remove corrupt data.

 Stage 4 - Data extraction - Data that is not compatible with the tool is extracted
and then transformed into a compatible form.

 Stage 5 - Data aggregation - In this stage, data with the same fields across different
datasets are integrated.

 Stage 6 - Data analysis - Data is evaluated using analytical and statistical tools to
discover useful information.

 Stage 7 - Visualization of data - With tools like Tableau, Power BI, and QlikView,
Big Data analysts can produce graphic visualizations of the analysis.

 Stage 8 - Final analysis result - This is the last step of the Big Data analytics
lifecycle, where the final results of the analysis are made available to business
stakeholders who will take action.

Different Types of Big Data Analytics

Here are the four types of Big Data analytics:

1. Descriptive Analytics

This summarizes past data into a form that people can easily read. This helps in creating
reports, like a company’s revenue, profit, sales, and so on. Also, it helps in the tabulation of
social media metrics.

Use Case: The Dow Chemical Company analyzed its past data to increase facility utilization
across its office and lab space. Using descriptive analytics, Dow was able to identify
underutilized space. This space consolidation helped the company save nearly US $4 million
annually.

2. Diagnostic Analytics

This is done to understand what caused a problem in the first place. Techniques like drill-
down, data mining, and data recovery are all examples. Organizations use diagnostic
analytics because they provide an in-depth insight into a particular problem.

Use Case: An e-commerce company’s report shows that their sales have gone down, although
customers are adding products to their carts. This can be due to various reasons like the form
didn’t load correctly, the shipping fee is too high, or there are not enough payment options
available. This is where you can use diagnostic analytics to find the reason.

3. Predictive Analytics

This type of analytics looks into the historical and present data to make predictions of the
future. Predictive analytics uses data mining, AI, and machine learning to analyze current
data and make predictions about the future. It works on predicting customer trends, market
trends, and so on.

Use Case: PayPal determines what kind of precautions they have to take to protect their
clients against fraudulent transactions. Using predictive analytics, the company uses all the
historical payment data and user behavior data and builds an algorithm that predicts
fraudulent activities.
4. Prescriptive Analytics

This type of analytics prescribes the solution to a particular problem. Perspective analytics
works with both descriptive and predictive analytics. Most of the time, it relies on AI and
machine learning.

Use Case: Prescriptive analytics can be used to maximize an airline’s profit. This type of
analytics is used to build an algorithm that will automatically adjust the flight fares based on
numerous factors, including customer demand, weather, destination, holiday seasons, and oil
prices.

What is Big Data Analytics and Why It is Important?

By Simplilearn
Last updated on Feb 12, 2023113895

Table of Contents
What is Big Data Analytics?
Why is big data analytics important?
What is Big Data?
Uses and Examples of Big Data Analytics
History of Big Data Analytics
View More

Today, Big Data is the hottest buzzword around. With the amount of data being generated
every minute by consumers and businesses worldwide, there is significant value to be found
in Big Data analytics.
What is Big Data Analytics?

Big Data analytics is a process used to extract meaningful insights, such as hidden patterns,
unknown correlations, market trends, and customer preferences. Big Data analytics provides
various advantages—it can be used for better decision making, preventing fraudulent
activities, among other things.

Why is big data analytics important?

In today’s world, Big Data analytics is fueling everything we do online—in every industry.

Take the music streaming platform Spotify for example. The company has nearly 96 million
users that generate a tremendous amount of data every day. Through this information, the
cloud-based platform automatically generates suggested songs—through a smart
recommendation engine—based on likes, shares, search history, and more. What enables this
is the techniques, tools, and frameworks that are a result of Big Data analytics.

If you are a Spotify user, then you must have come across the top recommendation section,
which is based on your likes, past history, and other things. Utilizing a recommendation
engine that leverages data filtering tools that collect data and then filter it using algorithms
works. This is what Spotify does.

But, let’s get back to the basics first.

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What is Big Data?

Big Data is a massive amount of data sets that cannot be stored, processed, or analyzed using
traditional tools.

Today, there are millions of data sources that generate data at a very rapid rate. These data
sources are present across the world. Some of the largest sources of data are social media
platforms and networks. Let’s use Facebook as an example—it generates more than 500
terabytes of data every day. This data includes pictures, videos, messages, and more.

Data also exists in different formats, like structured data, semi-structured data, and
unstructured data. For example, in a regular Excel sheet, data is classified as structured
data—with a definite format. In contrast, emails fall under semi-structured, and your pictures
and videos fall under unstructured data. All this data combined makes up Big Data.

Let’s look into the four advantages of Big Data analytics.

Also Read: Data Science vs. Big Data vs. Data Analytics

Uses and Examples of Big Data Analytics

There are many different ways that Big Data analytics can be used in order to improve
businesses and organizations. Here are some examples:

 Using analytics to understand customer behavior in order to optimize the customer

experience

 Predicting future trends in order to make better business decisions

 Improving marketing campaigns by understanding what works and what doesn't

 Increasing operational efficiency by understanding where bottlenecks are and how to fix
them

 Detecting fraud and other forms of misuse sooner

These are just a few examples — the possibilities are really endless when it comes to Big
Data analytics. It all depends on how you want to use it in order to improve your business.
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History of Big Data Analytics

The history of Big Data analytics can be traced back to the early days of computing, when
organizations first began using computers to store and analyze large amounts of data.
However, it was not until the late 1990s and early 2000s that Big Data analytics really began
to take off, as organizations increasingly turned to computers to help them make sense of the
rapidly growing volumes of data being generated by their businesses.

Today, Big Data analytics has become an essential tool for organizations of all sizes across a
wide range of industries. By harnessing the power of Big Data, organizations are able to gain
insights into their customers, their businesses, and the world around them that were simply
not possible before.

As the field of Big Data analytics continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more
amazing and transformative applications of this technology in the years to come.

Read More: Fascinated by Data Science, software alum Aditya Shivam wanted to look for
new possibilities of learning and then gradually transitioning in to the data field. Read about
Shivam’s journey with our Big Data Engineer Master’s Program, in his Simplilearn Big Data
Engineer Review.

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Benefits and Advantages of Big Data Analytics

1. Risk Management

Use Case: Banco de Oro, a Phillippine banking company, uses Big Data analytics to identify
fraudulent activities and discrepancies. The organization leverages it to narrow down a list of
suspects or root causes of problems.

2. Product Development and Innovations

Use Case: Rolls-Royce, one of the largest manufacturers of jet engines for airlines and armed
forces across the globe, uses Big Data analytics to analyze how efficient the engine designs
are and if there is any need for improvements.

3. Quicker and Better Decision Making Within Organizations

Use Case: Starbucks uses Big Data analytics to make strategic decisions. For example, the
company leverages it to decide if a particular location would be suitable for a new outlet or
not. They will analyze several different factors, such as population, demographics,
accessibility of the location, and more.

4. Improve Customer Experience

Use Case: Delta Air Lines uses Big Data analysis to improve customer experiences. They
monitor tweets to find out their customers’ experience regarding their journeys, delays, and
so on. The airline identifies negative tweets and does what’s necessary to remedy the
situation. By publicly addressing these issues and offering solutions, it helps the airline build
good customer relations.

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The Lifecycle Phases of Big Data Analytics

Now, let’s review how Big Data analytics works:

 Stage 1 - Business case evaluation - The Big Data analytics lifecycle begins with a
business case, which defines the reason and goal behind the analysis.

 Stage 2 - Identification of data - Here, a broad variety of data sources are identified.

 Stage 3 - Data filtering - All of the identified data from the previous stage is filtered here
to remove corrupt data.

 Stage 4 - Data extraction - Data that is not compatible with the tool is extracted and then
transformed into a compatible form.

 Stage 5 - Data aggregation - In this stage, data with the same fields across different
datasets are integrated.

 Stage 6 - Data analysis - Data is evaluated using analytical and statistical tools to discover
useful information.

 Stage 7 - Visualization of data - With tools like Tableau, Power BI, and QlikView, Big
Data analysts can produce graphic visualizations of the analysis.

 Stage 8 - Final analysis result - This is the last step of the Big Data analytics lifecycle,
where the final results of the analysis are made available to business stakeholders who will
take action.

Different Types of Big Data Analytics

Here are the four types of Big Data analytics:

1. Descriptive Analytics

This summarizes past data into a form that people can easily read. This helps in creating
reports, like a company’s revenue, profit, sales, and so on. Also, it helps in the tabulation of
social media metrics.
Use Case: The Dow Chemical Company analyzed its past data to increase facility utilization
across its office and lab space. Using descriptive analytics, Dow was able to identify
underutilized space. This space consolidation helped the company save nearly US $4 million
annually.

2. Diagnostic Analytics

This is done to understand what caused a problem in the first place. Techniques like drill-
down, data mining, and data recovery are all examples. Organizations use diagnostic
analytics because they provide an in-depth insight into a particular problem.

Use Case: An e-commerce company’s report shows that their sales have gone down, although
customers are adding products to their carts. This can be due to various reasons like the form
didn’t load correctly, the shipping fee is too high, or there are not enough payment options
available. This is where you can use diagnostic analytics to find the reason.

3. Predictive Analytics

This type of analytics looks into the historical and present data to make predictions of the
future. Predictive analytics uses data mining, AI, and machine learning to analyze current
data and make predictions about the future. It works on predicting customer trends, market
trends, and so on.

Use Case: PayPal determines what kind of precautions they have to take to protect their
clients against fraudulent transactions. Using predictive analytics, the company uses all the
historical payment data and user behavior data and builds an algorithm that predicts
fraudulent activities.

4. Prescriptive Analytics

This type of analytics prescribes the solution to a particular problem. Perspective analytics
works with both descriptive and predictive analytics. Most of the time, it relies on AI and
machine learning.
Use Case: Prescriptive analytics can be used to maximize an airline’s profit. This type of
analytics is used to build an algorithm that will automatically adjust the flight fares based on
numerous factors, including customer demand, weather, destination, holiday seasons, and oil
prices.

Big Data Analytics Tools

Here are some of the key big data analytics tools :

 Hadoop - helps in storing and analyzing data

 MongoDB - used on datasets that change frequently

 Talend - used for data integration and management

 Cassandra - a distributed database used to handle chunks of data

 Spark - used for real-time processing and analyzing large amounts of data

 STORM - an open-source real-time computational system

 Kafka - a distributed streaming platform that is used for fault-tolerant storage

6 Major Conventional system
Challenges of Big Data & Simple
Solutions To Solve Them
The challenges of conventional systems in Big Data need to be
addressed. Below are some of the major Big Data challenges and their
solutions.

1. Lack of proper understanding of Big Data

Companies fail in their Big Data initiatives due to insufficient

understanding. Employees may not know what data is, its storage,
processing, importance, and sources. Data professionals may know
what is going on, but others may not have a clear picture.
For example, if employees do not understand the importance of data
storage, they might not keep the backup of sensitive data. They might
not use databases properly for storage. As a result, when this important
data is required, it cannot be retrieved easily.

Solution
Big Data workshops and seminars must be held at companies for
everyone. Basic training programs must be arranged for all the
employees who are handling data regularly and are a part of the Big
Data projects. A basic understanding of data concepts must be
inculcated by all levels of the organization.

2. Data growth issues

One of the most pressing challenges of Big Data is storing all these huge
sets of data properly. The amount of data being stored in data centers
and databases of companies is increasing rapidly. As these data sets
grow exponentially with time, it gets extremely difficult to handle.
Most of the data is unstructured and comes from documents, videos,
audios, text files and other sources. This means that you cannot find
them in databases. This can pose huge Big Data analytics
challenges and must be resolved as soon as possible, or it can delay the
growth of the company.

Solution
To handle these large data sets, companies are opting for modern
techniques, such as compression, tiering, and deduplication.
Compression is used for reducing the number of bits in the data, thus
reducing its overall size. Deduplication is the process of removing
duplicate and unwanted data from a data set.

Data tiering allows companies to store data in different storage tiers. It

ensures that the data is residing in the most appropriate storage space.
Data tiers can be public cloud, private cloud, and flash storage,
depending on the data size and importance.

3 Confusion while Big Data tool selection

Companies often get confused while selecting the best tool for Big Data
analysis and storage. Is HBase or Cassandra the best technology for
data storage? Is Hadoop MapReduce good enough or will Spark be a
better option for data analytics and storage?
These questions bother companies and sometimes they are unable to
find the answers. They end up making poor decisions and selecting
inappropriate technology. As a result, money, time, efforts and work
hours are wasted.

Solution
The best way to go about it is to seek professional help. You can either
hire experienced professionals who know much more about these
tools. Another way is to go for Big Data consulting. Here, consultants
will give a recommendation of the best tools, based on your company’s
scenario. Based on their advice, you can work out a strategy and then
select the best tool for you.
4. Lack of data professionals

To run these modern technologies and Big Data tools, companies need
skilled data professionals. These professionals will include data
scientists, data analysts and data engineers who are experienced in
working with the tools and making sense out of huge data sets.

Companies face a problem of lack of Big Data professionals. This is

because data handling tools have evolved rapidly, but in most cases, the
professionals have not. Actionable steps need to be taken in order to
bridge this gap.

Solution
Companies are investing more money in the recruitment of skilled
professionals. They also have to offer training programs to the existing
staff to get the most out of them.
Another important step taken by organizations is the purchase of data
analytics solutions that are powered by artificial intelligence/machine
learning. These tools can be run by professionals who are not data
science experts but have basic knowledge. This step helps companies
to save a lot of money for recruitment.

5. Securing data

Securing these huge sets of data is one of the daunting challenges of Big
Data. Often companies are so busy in understanding, storing and
analyzing their data sets that they push data security for later stages.
But, this is not a smart move as unprotected data repositories can
become breeding grounds for malicious hackers.
Companies can lose up to $3.7 million for a stolen record or a data
breach.

Solution
Companies are recruiting more cybersecurity professionals to protect
their data. Other steps taken for securing data include:
 Data encryption
 Data segregation
 Identity and access control
  Implementation of endpoint security
 Real-time security monitoring
 Use Big Data security tools, such as IBM Guardian

6. Integrating data from a variety of sources

Data in an organization comes from a variety of sources, such as social

media pages, ERP applications, customer logs, financial reports, e-
mails, presentations, and reports created by employees. Combining all
this data to prepare reports is a challenging task.
This is an area often neglected by firms. But data integration is crucial
for analysis, reporting and business intelligence, so it must be perfect.

Solution
Companies must solve their data integration problems by purchasing
the right tools. Some of the best data integration tools are mentioned
below:
 Talend Data Integration
 Centerprise Data Integrator
 ArcESB
 IBM InfoSphere
 Xplenty
 Informatica PowerCenter
 CloverDX
 Microsoft SQL
 QlikView
 Oracle Data Service Integrator

Analytics vs Reporting: Key

Differences & Importance
Analytics and reporting can help a business improve operational efficiency
and production in several ways. Analytics is the process of making
decisions based on the data presented, while reporting is used to make
complicated information easier to understand. Let’s discuss analytics vs
reporting.

Analytics and reporting are often referred to as the same. Although both
take in data as input and present it in charts, graphs, or dashboards, they
have several key differences. This post will cover analytics and reporting,
key differences, and its importance in business.

What is analytics vs reporting?

Analytics is the technique of examining data and reports to obtain
actionable insights that can be used to comprehend and improve business
performance. Business users may gain insights from data, recognize
trends, and make better decisions with analytics.

On the one hand, analytics is about finding value or making new data to
help you decide. This can be performed either manually or mechanically.
Next-generation analytics uses new technologies like AI or machine
learning to make predictions about the future based on past and present
data.

The steps involved in data analytics are as follows:

 Developing a data hypothesis

 Data collection and transformation
 Creating analytical models to analyze and provide insights
 Utilization of data visualization, trend analysis, deep dives, and other
tools.
 Making decisions based on data and insights

On the other hand, reporting is the process of presenting data from

numerous sources clearly and simply. The procedure is always carefully
set out to report correct data and avoid misunderstandings.

Today’s reporting applications offer cutting-edge dashboards with

advanced data visualization features. Companies produce a variety of
reports, such as financial reports, accounting reports, operational reports,
market studies, and more. This makes it easier to see how each function is
operating quickly.

In general, the procedures needed to create a report are as follows:

 Determining the business requirement

 Obtaining and compiling essential data
 Technical data translation
 Recognizing the data context
 Building dashboards for reporting
 Providing real-time reporting
 Allowing users to dive down into reports

Key differences between analytics vs reporting

Differences between analytics and reporting can significantly benefit your
business. If you want to use both to their full potential and not miss out on
essential parts of either one knowing the difference between the two is
important. Some key differences are:

Analytics Reporting
Analytics is the method of examining and Reporting is an action that includes all the
analyzing summarized data to make needed information and data and is put together
business decisions. in an organized way.

Identifying business events, gathering the

Questioning the data, understanding it,
required information, organizing, summarizing,
investigating it, and presenting it to the
and presenting existing data are all part of
end users are all part of analytics.
reporting.

The purpose of analytics is to draw The purpose of reporting is to organize the data
conclusions based on data. into meaningful information.

Analytics is used by data analysts, Reporting is provided to the appropriate

scientists, and business people to make business leaders to perform effectively and
effective decisions. efficiently within a firm.

Analytics and reporting can be used to reach a number of different goals.

Both of these can be very helpful to a business if they are used correctly.

Importance of analytics vs reporting

A business needs to understand the differences between analytics and
reporting. Better data knowledge through analytics and reporting helps
businesses in decision-making and action inside the organization. It results
in higher value and performance.

Analytics is not really possible without advanced reporting, but analytics is

more than just reporting. Both tools are made for sharing important
information that will help business people make better decisions

Transforming data into insights

Analytics assists businesses in converting information into insights,
whereas reporting transforms data into information. Analytics aims to take
the data and figure out what it means.

Analytics examines report data to determine why and how to fix

organizational problems. Analysts begin by asking questions that may arise
as they examine how the data in the reports has been structured. A
qualified analyst can make recommendations to improve business
performance once the data analysis is complete.
Analytics and reporting go hand in hand, and you can’t have one without
the other. The raw data are the first step in the whole process. The data
then needs to be put together to make it look like accurate information.
Reports can be comprehensive and employ a range of technologies. Still,
their main objective is always to make it simpler for analysts to understand
what is actually happening within the organization.

Conclusion
Reporting and analytics have distinct differences. Reporting focuses on
arranging and presenting facts, while analytics provides actionable insights.
However, both are important and connected. Your implementation plans
will stay on track if everyone on your team agrees on what they mean when
they talk about analytics or reporting.

Organizations all around the world are utilizing knowledge management

systems and solutions such as Insights Hub to manage data better, reduce
the time it takes to obtain insights, and increase the utilization of historical
data while cutting costs and increasing ROI.