By Eric Haller
People are making a big deal about big data—and it is a big deal. It has the power to guide us in addressing some of our nation’s most pressing needs, from protecting against fraud at the checkout counter to helping families secure affordable loans that help them accomplish their dreams. And like any powerful tool, it must be deployed wisely; in the wrong hands, as Hollywood saw recently, data can be hacked.
But that doesn’t mean abandoning big data is the solution, especially with so many weighty challenges burdening our nation. There’s a smart way to use data right, and we can “unleash untold opportunities” if we use technology to do it well, as President Obama alluded to in this year’s State of the Union address. With big data, technology is now able to process unfathomable, and until recently largely unmanageable, volumes of information. And from that processing, we can identify actionable insights that can illuminate new solutions to old problems.
The reality is, we are able to achieve so much more as a society when we make better sense of the complicated world around us. That means analyzing data carefully and intelligently, because it’s critically important to understand what all the knowledge we’re collecting means and what to do differently based on it.
That’s exactly what we’re doing right now. We’re analyzing data to gain insight into the causes of cancers, provide better health care, and improve our ability to avoid financial disasters. Think of atmospheric and climate research applications, or the comparative analysis of the entire genome DNA sequence—or of health studies that offer better understanding of genetic diseases.
And beyond these broad applications, we’re also seeing individual gains from big data. Getting behind the wheel of a car is much safer now that people have access to a database of 5 billion vehicles that tells us of any past accidents or other causes for concern in a used vehicle.
These significant societal benefits come about when the right data is collected and then analyzed in a smart way. Unfortunately, despite these monumental advances, big data is also getting a bad rap, largely because the term is poorly understood.
Part of the challenge is simply because big data involves data collection. No one seems to respect a collector. The tax collector, the toll collector, the debt collector, even the stamp collector is resented, avoided, shunned or ridiculed. But the truth is there is great potential for good and overall business and societal benefit with the proper understanding, use and analysis of large datasets.
Maybe it’s as easy as rethinking what we call big data. Maybe we should simply start calling it data alchemy, because that’s essentially what data analysis does—turn raw data into actionable insight by carefully mixing disparate data sources and extracting the insights.
But no matter what it’s called, big data has become a necessity for those trying to process accumulations of information that are too large and too complex for processing using traditional database management tools. Consider the strain when millions of consumers need to safely access their banking information online. Adding the scope required to validate this kind of information—in real time—makes the need… well…pretty big.
Many of the daily tasks of our connected lives now rely on big data. By analyzing not merely patterns, but the relationship between many different variables, data analysis allows more people to buy homes, more companies to expand their business, and more individuals to safely manage their finances.
The intelligent use of data assets helps us make better decisions, so we should not be so quick to dismiss technology that offers us such powerful insight. With it we can prevent fraud, verify identity, manage debt, retain and expand customer relationships—and businesses fueling our economy can also use it to plan, target and execute strategies of all kinds, thus turning data into value-added insight. That’s the real promise of big data: giving researchers an unprecedented opportunity to look at their business problems from a fresh perspective and to capture the value hidden within their data assets.
Rather than a name change, big data needs to be better understood. As long as privacy rights are respected, adequate security measures are in place to protect personal information, compliance protocols are carefully maintained and there remains a total commitment to data accuracy, the opportunities brought by what we call “big data” should not be hindered. Instead, big data should be embraced for its big benefits.
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