IDC estimates and reports annually their guess on what the size of data is in the ‘digital universe’. They estimate that the current size is in the thousands of exabytes. And many sense that the rate of growth of data is becoming explosive and getting out of hand.
Many organizations are puzzled how best to extract knowledge from all the data that they are collecting and storing. And to do that, many are finding the need to create data new tools and perspectives for how to go about mining the data. This field is an emerging area called business data analyics. And it is turning math geeks into highly sought after superstars.
The New York Times reports that data analytics is driving a renaissance in math and statistics. One example of this trend is a dramatic increase in the number of attendees at this years conference of the American Statistical Association. Statisticians are in top demand by companies like Google, as Google and other companies try to optimize everything from search to computer and network utilization. Google now has 250 full-time data analysts.
The size of today’s data sets is part of the new challenge. And part of the allure. Web data sets can provide millions of data points showing how people and data interact. More conclusive research can be conducted than ever before. Previously data analysis was done after collecting and analyzing data from only a few hundred or thousand surveys.
We’re moving to a new level in managing data. One that is more focused on analyzing and evaluating the meaning of the data.
Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Digital Business, said that “We’re rapidly entering a world where everything can be monitored and measured. But the big problem is going to be the ability of humans to use, analyze and make sense of the data.”
