5 Big Data Technologies You Cannot Afford to Miss

It is quarantine or lockdown time for almost the entire world. And I am sure a lot of us are killing or enjoying this time by binge-watching our favorite Netflix series. Well, this is the kind of impact big data has on the world.

Netflix indeed is an excellent example to simplify the definition of big data. Known and used all over the world, Netflix is able to reach the 100 million subscriber mark with the help of massive data it collects and adds value to with the help of big data.

Basically, the online entertainment business captures data and sends suggestions to viewers based on previous preferences. This data is further analyzed to get insights on what interests its subscribers to enhance customer experience.

Other than Netflix, big brands such as Amazon, McDonald’s, General Electric, and more capitalize on the potential of big data regularly.

Why does big data matter?

The world today is operating at an exceptionally rapid pace, especially when it comes to technology, modern experience, and innovation. The transformation cycle has literally moved on from largely offline practices to the ones that are highly personalized, relevant, and adaptive. And to keep up with the breakneck pace, businesses are adopting more advanced platforms. A large number of companies are leveraging the power of big data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make the best use of resources and enhance business performance.

However, adopting these technologies for business performance means a lot more than just making sense out of data; in fact, it is more focused on putting data to best use.

Technically, big data and analytics work on large data chunks to reveal hidden patterns, correlation, and other useful business insights. The technology helps enterprises harness their data and reveals new opportunities. Which, in return, concludes to smarter business moves, enhanced business performance, and more substantial profits and, most of all, happier customers.

How big data adds value to a business?

1. Cost reduction

A wide range of big data technologies like Hadoop and cloud-based analytics are engineered to help companies make the most of the cost advantage. These tools specifically assist enterprises with the storage of massive amounts of data and additionally identify more efficient ways of doing business, in turn, reducing costs by large margins.

2. Faster and informed decision making

With the speed and precision offered by various big data tools, their ability to examine and analyze information provides businesses with the advantage of making informed decisions based on relevant outcomes.

3. New products and services

This one is interesting. With the ability to understand personalized customer preferences, businesses can offer customers what they want. Studies also state that big data analytics has helped companies develop new products to meet customer needs.

Now that we know the power of big data, it is time to harness its goodness with the help of best in class technologies.

But before that, let’s take you through a few relevant statistics pertaining to big data.

I am sure the statistics mentioned above need no explanation and clearly display the future and potential of big data. Not just this but, once analyzed data can be helpful in a multitude of ways. You will be amazed to learn that; in healthcare, this data helps prevent diseases by detecting them at an early stage (Big data is playing an essential role in tracking the COVID-19 outbreak). The banking sector benefits from this technology as it supports the detection of illegal activities, and a lot of other business verticals benefit from this technology in a variety of ways.

So, without any further ado, let us find out what are the five most emerging big data technologies businesses should not miss out on.

Here are five emerging big data technologies you should never miss,

Note: These technologies are not in any particular order.

1. Data Lakes

Data lakes are massive data repositories that enable the storage of structured and unstructured data from a variety of sources on a large scale. The data is stored in its natural form, without the need to primarily structure the available data and run a number of analytics from dashboards to real-time analytics and more.

Top benefits

• Generates value from unlimited types of data
• Provides flexibility
• Offers endless options to query data
• Eliminates data silos

2. Hadoop Ecosystem

Believe it or not, big data is incomplete without Hadoop (Well, it might not be as popular as it was in the past, but we cannot overlook its contribution toward big data).

Engineered as an open-source framework, the Hadoop ecosystem enables the distributed processing of big data sets. Additionally, the tool is reinforced to an extent where it can hold the complete ecosystem of related software, and a large number of commercial big data solutions are based on Hadoop.

Top benefits

• Scalable
• Cost-effective
• Flexible
• Resilient to failure

3. NoSQL Databases

Since cloud computing is being widely adopted over various industry verticals, NoSQL databases store unstructured data and deliver rapid performance. Additionally, the tool offers flexibility and simultaneously handles large volumes of a variety of different data types.

Examples of popular NoSQL are MongoDB, Cassandra, and Redis.

Top benefits

• Handles large volumes of structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data
• Offers object-oriented programming that is agile and simple to use
• Provides efficient and scale-out architecture other than expensive, monolithic architecture

4. Apache Spark

Apache Spark is a unified analytics engine that enables the processing of massive data chunks within Hadoop. Recognized as one of the largest open-source environments, it is 100 times faster compared to MapReduce, a standard Hadoop engine. Since its release, Apache Spark has been meeting business expectations in a more polished manner with regard to querying, generating analytics reports, and data processing.

Top benefits

• Speed
• Offers increased access to big data
• Offers advanced analytics

5. R

Just like the Hadoop ecosystem, R is an open-source technology. It is basically a programming language and a software environment to operate with statistics. Additionally, Eclipse and Visual data support this language.

A large number of organizations believe that R has transformed to be one of the most popular languages across the globe.

Top Benefits

• Offers exemplary support for data wrangling
• Facilitates quality plotting and graphing
• Offers vast arrays of packages

Conclusion

Big data is huge, and the benefits it offers businesses is mind-boggling. However, to make the most of the technology, businesses need to stay updated with the latest trends, techniques, and technologies for enhanced data usage and to map potential business opportunities. For more relevant content on Big data, you can download our latest whitepapers on Big Data.