CP1541: DATA ANALYTICS Lecture -9- A Wider Variety of Data, unstructured data -BCA -S5.

A Wider Variety of Data

The variety of data sources continues to increase. Traditionally, internally focused operational systems, such as ERP (enterprise resource planning) and CRM applications, were the major source of data used in analytic processing. However, in order to increase knowledge and awareness, the data sources that feed into the analytics processes is rapidly growing to include a wider variety of data sources.
The wider variety of data sources are:
• Internet data (i.e., clickstream, social media, social networking links)
• Primary research (i.e., surveys, experiments, observations)
• Secondary research (i.e., competitive and marketplace data, industry reports, consumer data, business data)
• Location data (i.e., mobile device data, geospatial data)
• Image data (i.e., video, satellite image, surveillance)
• Supply chain data (i.e., EDI, vendor catalogs and pricing, quality information)
• Device data (i.e., sensors, PLCs, RF devices, LIMs, telemetry)

Structured data and Unstructured data
Relationship between structured data (the kind that is easy to define, store, and analyze) and unstructured data (the kind that tends to defy easy definition, takes up lots of storage capacity, and is typically more difficult to analyze).
Unstructured data is basically information that either does not have a predefined data model and/or does not fit well into a relational database. Unstructured information is typically text heavy, but may contain data such as dates, numbers, and facts as well.
Semi-structured data
The term semi-structured data is used to describe structured data that doesn’t fit into a formal structure of data models. However, semi-structured data does contain tags that separate semantic elements, which includes the capability to enforce hierarchies within the data.

Unstructured data in analytics:

• The amount of data (all data, everywhere) is doubling every two years.
• Our world is becoming more transparent.
• Most new data is unstructured. Specifically, unstructured data represents almost 95 percent of new data, while structured data represents only 5 percent.

Is Big Data analytics worth the effort?

Use Big Data analytics creates a competitive advantage for your enterprise
• Capitalize on new technology capabilities and leverage your existing technology assets
• Enable the appropriate organizational change to move towards fact-based decisions, adoption of new technologies, and uniting people from multiple disciplines into a single multidisciplinary team
• Deliver faster and superior results by embracing and capitalizing on the ever-increasing rate of change that is occurring in the global market place.