Big Data, Big Problems: Preparing Your Business for Better Analytics

Storing and Managing Big Data

One of the primary issues with data is where to store and how to manage it. As the exponential growth of data continues, experts report that 90% of all the data that has ever existed was created in the last two years, with over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created every day. With this much data being generated on a daily basis, proper data storage and management is critical to keeping a business running.

Many businesses find that they lack the bandwidth to properly manage, safely store, and organize large amounts of data. This data can be invaluable to businesses, but without the proper storage and knowledgeable experts to help manage it, this data can often go unused or worse, mismanaged. The best case in this scenario is to research what solutions best suit their business goals, how they wish to use data, and how they wish to store it.

Security Gaps

The more data we create and the larger the networks we have running are, the greater the threat of data breaches. With public and private information on the line, and data breaches becoming more common, data security is a growing concern and priority for many businesses.

A knowledgeable IT professional will always advise security measures like firewalls, encryptions, updates, and physical security. Without these measures, businesses and their customers can suffer greatly from security breaches. Some of the biggest names in the industry have lost face with customers and have been attacked with lawsuits over mishandling their customers’ personal data.

Choosing the Wrong Data Solutions

Poor data solutions may not always be easy to spot. Raw data is mostly useless until it can be properly captured, processed, and organized by applying advance analytics techniques. Once properly captured and organized, that information can be visualized using powerful analytics tools to enable you to gain new and powerful insights to drive your business forward. Without these insights, your data just isn’t living up to its potential.

Quality data solutions are shifting from luxury to necessity – they are no longer a competitive advantage but part of a standard arsenal. Having the ability to see what is happening with the business in real-time is important to uncover performance trends and metrics, identify pitfalls and ultimately make informed, data-driven decisions.

Inaccurate and Low-Quality Data

Poor data solutions may not always be easy to spot. Raw data is mostly useless until it can be properly captured, processed, and organized by applying advanced analytics techniques. Once properly captured and organized, that information can be visualized using powerful analytics tools to enable you to gain new and powerful insights to drive your business forward. Without these insights, your data just isn’t living up to its potential.

As much as collecting vast quantities of data is vital for business, inaccurate data hinders more than it helps. Low-quality data eats up storage space and obscures analysis, hindering companies from the insights they need.

Signs of low-quality data include:

• Inconsistent formatting, which can be as simple as spelling the same things differently i.e., USA vs. U.S.A.
• Missing data, where a field in a form wasn’t properly filled in or the information wasn’t pulled from another database.
• Inaccurate data, where the data there isn’t correct or it needs to be updated.
• Duplicate data, such as having more than one instance of a single customer

Solving these issues means ensuring that the exact information that is needed is collected. The data also needs to be scrubbed regularly once it’s collected, this means not only cleansed as soon as it is obtained but also regularly updated.

Lack of Skilled Experts

One issue businesses are facing is the lack of skilled data analysts and experts who understand data management best practices and who have the knowledge to design and maintain an efficient infrastructure. Data Analysts specialize in data solutions and can help businesses keep up with the ever-evolving world of big data to combat the new challenges that are being faced every day. These specialized experts help to fill the gaps and give businesses access to more data solutions than ever before.

Unleash the Power of Data

As big data continues to become more recognized as a vital part of success, businesses big and small are beginning to understand the value of data to streamline organizational processes and make more confident decisions. Through powered-up business intelligence, companies are empowered to unlock the full potential of the data they have collected, driving the insights that will guide their business for years to come.

Proper planning can help your organization avoid pitfalls when launching data analytics for your company and is essential for long-term success. We recommend partnering with a data analytics expert who can help you organize, navigate and put all your data on view. This helps you to capture, manage, and process your data in real-time at a large scale, so your team is able to spend less time wading through messy data and focus on what matters.