The very definition of big data- Volume, Variety, Velocity and Veracity- make it different from previous business innovations and trends. The tremendous spurt in technology and rise of app based smartphones along with rising speeds of internet connectivity, and an increase in sensors and associated technologies has brought data deluge. Now there is more data being generated every year than what was generated in the previous century. Plus the world is more interconnected now.
The rise of social web is another phenomenon. People have started sharing a part of their lives-likes and dislikes, vacations, their thought patterns etc, publicly. They have also started being producers of content in many cases- giving rise to the term Prosumers. This is an entirely new phenomenon.
Earlier the product life cycle was long, now the rapid pace of innovation makes a product obsolete the moment it is launched. Consumers can make or break a product (in some cases atleast), sitting on their chairs in their homes.
The current times have given consumers voice- and they can use it to influence other potential consumers. The current technologies can allow an organisation to crowdsource an idea in return for certain rewards. They can ask other people to come up with potential solutions to the organisation's problem at a fraction of cost. Tata Docomo, a mobile operator in India, experimented with crowdsourcing the advertisements it ran on television. And it was quite successful in this effort. Government of India is pooling ideas in various fields-by asking citizens to come up with their solutions to the problems the government has identified. The scale has grown bigger, much bigger, than what was possible before.
NYSE generates about 1TB data everyday. Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, YouTube, Whatsapp, etc. generate tremendous amounts of data everyday. None of these was foreseen before. We cannot even put a limit to the amount of data that will be generated 2 years from now. It's in a flux. As more and more devices connect to the internet- they will generate more data.
One example of the rapid changes in the data realm can be had from Indian Railways- Earlier even knowing about the status of booking, or trains running status, or booking a ticket was a nightmare. Now one can do it with a few keyboard clicks. The running status of a train can be found out in minutes. We can look at historical data to find out the average running period of a train. One can book a lunch hundreds of km away even before boarding a train. And now the railways are running trains that have variable fare depending on the rush (No doubt airlines have been doing it for decades!). All this is made possible by today's technology. Yet Indian railways has just scratched the surface. Imagine if they could overlay social data on top of the data they already have. They could better anticipate the demands, make changes in addressing consumer grievances, and overall optimise their operational efficiency. They can turn profitable instead of making losses.
Now we are living in a world which is dynamic, and people are looking for quick solutions to their problems. Businesses will need to look out for accelerated response to the changing environment and consumer preference. The Bill Gates prediction of "Business@ Speed of Thought" will turn into reality soon enough. It is here that the Big Data holds tremendous potential.
Big Data revolution is win/win for both the businesses as well as consumer. It makes a two way communication possible between the stakeholders. It can make a business more ready for disruption, and anticipate the changes in consumer taste, and respond to that pre-emptively. The near real time nature of analytics that is possible by using Big Data is what makes it different than the earlier innovations/trends.
