You are currently viewing Big data: diving into an ocean of data

Big data: diving into an ocean of data

Big Data has been a hot topic in recent years. However, few people outside of Silicon Valley can define, much less detect, an economic reality behind this issue.

If Big Data is a long-term trend, does it have added value potential and, if so, who are the players involved?

Big Data can be defined above all by an ever-increasing volume of available computer data. 90% of current data created in the last two years and production is expected to increase by 800% in 5 years, according to Gartner forecasts.

Big Data: What added value for companies?

This data represents nothing for those who don’t know it or can’t analyze it, as was the case just a few years ago. Companies that know how to use this data, regardless of their industry sector, can gain a strategic advantage through:

  • taking into account a higher number of parameters and therefore make better decisions,
  • improving existing systems (optimizing and reducing costs, increasing productivity, etc.),
  • creating new, more specific products,
  • an improvement of the experience

From diagnosis to genomic sequencing

The available health data should be multiplied by 50 by 2022, which represents an unprecedented potential for innovation: identification of disease risk factors, diagnostic assistance, choice and monitoring of treatment efficacy, pharmacovigilance, epidemiology, etc.

For example, IBM, through its artificial intelligence program Watson, managed in 2016 to complete the “human” diagnosis of a cancer patient and provide more appropriate treatment. It illustrates one of the objectives shared by Big Data’s actors in the health sector, the advent of medicine called “4 P”: Predictive, Preventive, Personalized and Participatory.

While we wait for the autonomous car

Sensors have existed for a long time in our vehicles; they can measure tire pressure, oil or gas levels, etc. However, Big Data is revolutionizing the industry with the aim of making driving safer, more responsible and more environmentally friendly.

On average, there are more than 100 sensors (radar, high-resolution cameras, optical and thermal sensors) in contemporary cars, almost all of which now offer driving aids such as trajectory control, the anticipation of braking or gear shifting to reduce fuel consumption. These innovations, which provide new services or different driving experience, are on the rise.

 

Out of all these new innovations in various fields of application from assistance to autonomous car driving, there is only one step that some players have already taken; newcomers, such as Google or Tesla or others, traditional ones, such as BMW, which relies on the artificial intelligence of Watson, developed by IBM to imagine the car of tomorrow.