big data jobs

Big Data has taken the technology world by storm! In Layman’s terms, big data can be defined as any set of structured or unstructured data that is too big for regular database tools to handle and process. With huge chunks of data being generated regularly from various digital sources, it is essential for companies to analyze and gain insights from this data. These insights will not only help them in understanding their products and customer base better, but also in planning and executing their long and short-term goals.

According to a report by Forbes, 87% of companies think big data will make big changes to their industries before the end of the decade. Even more think that not having a big data strategy will cause their companies to fall behind and lose out in the rat’s race.

Now, why the buzz around learning Big Data? you must be wondering how this game-changing technology can be applied in different industries. In this blog, we will explore how Big Data can be applied to different industries and bring about drastic changes in the execution and planning phases to maximize profits.

1. Big Data in Healthcare

Traditionally, due to its inability to standardize and consolidate data, Healthcare industry lagged using Big Data and its awesome tools to analyze and study data. Soon enough, the sheer importance of collecting this data was realized and Big Data eventually found its way to revolutionize the Healthcare industry.

Big Data Analytics is used to provide personalized medicine and prescriptive analysis.

These huge volumes of data also helped researchers to determine which treatments are most effective for a disease or condition, it helped identify patterns related to drug side effects and helped in taking precautionary measures as well.

Researchers have started to map healthcare data with demographical data sets to predict which diseases can escalate in a geographic location. This helped in better strategizing contamination prevention actions.

With the increase in data sources like availability of wearable technologies, health record, sensor data, patient generated data can be used to derive better insights and help in creating a better plan of action. ‘ 

Real life use case: Real Time Alerting

Real time alerting has become one of the best use-cases of Big Data in the Healthcare spectrum. Clinical Decision Support (CDS) software provides vital data to doctors which they use to draw up prescriptions.

The wearable devices along with personal analytics devices will collect patient health data continuously and send this to a cloud storage. Additionally, a central database consisting a historic health record of individuals will be available for Doctors to access.

Accessing both these data will allow doctors to analyze problems and strategize a better solution.  This can help patients save up on costly in-house treatments and also get a quick solution to their issues. 

2. Big Data In Manufacturing:

Big Data analytics can help manufacturing industry in improving production quality, increase  efficiency, save time and money among other resources, and most importantly to reduce production flaws. Production flaws can also be reduced by using Babcock and Wilcox equipment, that provides high-quality, dependable products. Predictive manufacturing can help zero-in on downtime and promote transparency. The need to accomplish all of this can only be fulfilled by a ginormous pile of data which researchers have access to now.

Major benefits of using Big Data applications in manufacturing industry are:

  • Increasing energy efficiency
  • Supply planning
  • Manufacturing process defect tracking
  • Product quality and defects tracking
  • Support for mass-customization of manufacturing
  • Output forecasting

Real life use case: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

A pharmaceutical company working with genetically engineered cells were tracking around 200 variables to track the purity of its manufacturing process for vaccines and blood components. When testing identical batches, they found that the batches made from identical processes showed a yield variation of 50 to 100%. This inconsistency was an alarming number for the company. So, what did they do? Analyzing 200 parameters is a tough task in itself, let alone finding the similarities and recording the right changes in them. This is when the pharmaceutical company turned to Big Data tools. The project team segmented its manufacturing process into clusters of activity. Using Big Data analytic tools, the team assessed process interdependencies and listed nine parameters that directly impacted vaccine yield. By modifying these target processes, the company was able to zero-in on the problem and increase its vaccine production by 50% which resulted in an annual saving of $8 million. 

3. Big Data In Finance:

Industry like banking and finance have a huge pile of data that can be leveraged to increase reach and build on customer satisfaction among other things. In the world of banking, nothing is tangible. Apart from your ATM transactions, every customer interaction generates electronic records that must be stored due to regulatory requirements imposed on them. Now, banks are not only storing these data, but also analyzing it to add value by generating meaningful insights.

Real life use case: Fraud Detection

The humongous data that these banks and financial firms possess can be used to analyze transactions and detect fraud. By applying analytics and machine learning, they can define normal activity based on a customer’s history and distinguish it from unusual behavior indicating fraud. The analysis systems are made to suggest immediate actions, such as blocking irregular transactions, reporting the user to authorities or just invalidating the transaction in some cases. These measures are necessary in a world where digital crimes are rampant. It helps stop frauds before it occurs and builds on security.

Big Data has far-reaching consequences for industries today. It is an important technology to be leveraged for any organization that is looking to survive in the competitive business environment. For this very reason, technology professionals with Big Data Analytics skills are finding themselves in high demand as businesses look to harness the power of Big Data. A professional with knowledge of Big Data can become a vital asset to an organization, boosting its business and their career. Big Data offers cost-effective and trusted way for companies to bring more value into their products or services and to understand their customers better. Learn Big Data today and ride this new tech-wave!