Big Data and Predictive Business Analytics

Today, the amount of data we are able to collect has been exploding. As a result, Big Data have become a new buzzword in information technology. Storing, managing, and analyzing Big Data is challenging, and will soon become a major differentiator between high-performing and low-performing organizations. This article discusses the issue of Big Data including the four dimensions of Big Data and the opportunities and challenges created by them. It also discusses various Big Data analytics applications. 40 copyright © 2015 Journal of Business Forecasting | all Rights Reserved | Winter 2014-2015 WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT BIG DATA? The model of generating/consuming data has changed. The old model was that few companies were generating data; all the others were consuming data. As technology advanced, a new model has evolved. Many companies are now generating and consuming data. But our ultimate goal is not just generating, storing, and managing Big Data. Once data are generated and stored, the next step is to analyze the data to find useful information. Information is then converted into knowledge to make decisions to optimize profit. Figure 1 shows an overview of the data analysis ...