Standord University Data and Knowledge Management Discussion Topic 1: Big Data Explain how big data is helping businesses today. Do you think that this co

Standord University Data and Knowledge Management Discussion Topic 1: Big Data

Explain how big data is helping businesses today. Do you think that this collection is a threat to your privacy?

Just do response each posted # 1 to 3 down below only.

Posted 1

I felt uneasy just reading the example of big data usage in Forbe’s article about Target (Hill, 2012). Even more so disturbed by the thought process used. While on the one hand its a genius idea to a data novice like myself. The question of manipulation as discussed in the previous chapter on CRM topic (Rainer & Prince, 2018, p 308) became more prevalent when exploring big data. The Target example quickly took me from wow that’s cool to wait that’s scary. Target’s example of big data usage makes me question the guidelines in place and the delicate balance that is needed. Although, I don’t personally understand where or how to draw those lines. I can see the benefits of technology all around me and understand that a lot of advancements are driven by data collected, mined and managed. Yet and still I feel like the usage of big data could be threatening and becomes an issue of decision making for me instead of with me.

Additionally, for a multitude of reasons big data is helpful to businesses today. Big data’s ability to aide in prediction is extremely valuable. With database management, there are benefits like security, integrity & independence of data. Although, it can help avoid issues like redundancy, isolation & inconsistency (p.124). There seem to be more issues when considering the management of big data. The rampant growth rate of data, the various ways data is collected and diverse types of data generated are some of the difficulties organizations face. Big data is in fact helpful to organizations but I’d say it comes with a big responsibility as well.

Posted 2

Big Data is a term used to describe data sets that are too large or complex to be processed by traditional data application software. Big Data has three distinct characteristics: volume, velocity, and variety. These characteristics distinguish Big Data from traditional data (Rainer & Prince, 2018). There are challenges with Big Data from capturing and storing the data, searching and sharing, so why would a business want to invest so much into it? Well the benefits that Big Data gives a business is worth the investment. An example in the book states that the human resources (HR) department at Caesars Entertainment saved money on healthcare benefits. The HR department had Big Data on its 65,000 employees and their covered family dependents, down to the prescription being either name brand or generic. They noticed that too many employees were going to hospital emergency rooms and not to urgent-care facilities. They ran a campaign to remind employees there are cheaper and still reliable options out there outside of hospital emergency rooms. Subsequently, 10,000 emergencies shifted to less expensive alternatives for a total savings of $4.5 million (Rainer & Prince, 2018 p. 134). Talk about getting a return on your investment of Big Data.

With companies and businesses having access to so much information about you, is our privacy on the line? The short answer, yes. Take for example Amazon’s Alexa. She comes in many forms today and can assist you with pretty much anything by simply saying the command word, “Alexa”. She instantly turns on and listens to answer your questions or command. Is she really off when not commanded? If you ask her if she is always listening, she will say only after the command word is given, and immediately prompt you to the privacy section on amazon.com. The same occurs using Apple with “hey Siri and Google with “hey Google” which can connect to almost any device these days. They all say the same thing, they care about our privacy and respect it, to learn about the policy go to the privacy section of our website. I personally have many of these Wi-Fi enabled and connected devices in my home. I have had conversations with friends about a movie I haven’t seen in a long time and can’t seem to find it. Well my Alexa, who only listens after I say the “command word”, must have been listening as the next time I logged into Amazon.com to just browse, they gave me targeted ads on where I could purchase a DVD copy of the movie I was previously talking about a week prior. Amazon also recommended a few items to go along with previous purchases of home décor.

Companies have more information about each of us than we really know or would even feel comfortable about. Them having the access to Big Data is beneficial for both parties at the end of the day. They are able to get a full picture of us, our needs as consumers, our needs for healthcare and even present us with an old classic movie we haven’t seen in 15 years. Big Data can yield instant insights, better analytics, vast amounts of data and smarter decision making through better risk analysis than any other system we currently have.

Posted 3

Big Data can simply be defined as a collection of data so vast and complex that it makes it very hard to manage with the application of traditional database management systems. Essentially, it is all about forecasting, and this comes from the use of mathematical tools concerning vast chunks of data to get probabilities. Generally, it comprises of traditional enterprise data like the customer information from the customer relationship management systems, transactional enterprises, web store transactions, resource planning data, operational data, general ledger information, etc. It also comprises of machine-generated data like the smart meters; sensors integrated into mobile devices, manufacturing sensors, automobiles, and airplane engines et cetera. (Alazar,2016). We can also talk about social data like customer feedback comments on Facebook, micro-blogging sites like Twitter, and other sites like Linkedln and YouTube.

With that said, Big Data is quite an extensive and broad topic, and as discussed in the book, it has a variety of benefits to today’s business organizations. For example, Facebook users, which are more than 1.8 billion uploads more than 400 million new photos every single day, and at the same time, clicking a like button or leaving a comment almost 5 billion times every single day. This is a lot of data that translates into billions of monies. (Alazar,2016). The importance of Big Data, however, does not revolve around how much data a company or a business enterprise has, but rather it is concerned with how the Company uses the information they have collected. Some of the companies like Facebook which uses the information they collect strategically to enjoy the following:

Cost Savings- like for instance, various tools of Big Data like Hadoop and even Cloud-Based Analytics can infer cost-saving advantages to businesses in case vast chunks of data are to be stored.
Time reductions- the high speed of these analytical tools and in-memory analytics can quickly point out new sources of data that can be beneficial to the businesses do critical analysis and make quick and informed decisions.
It also helps the businesses of today in understanding market conditions- through the analysis of the big data, a company can achieve better insights about the current markets trends and conditions. For instance, through the analysis of customers purchasing trends, a business can today find out the products that are sold the most and make their productions to resonate with this trend, this is what Amazon.com plus many other multinationals does.

Big Data in as much it is helpful in several ways and brings a lot of convenience and the best customer experiences in the digital world, it has privacy concerns. The value of data today rated in terms of multibillion dollars, the companies are not entrusted and there have been a lot of cases where privacy breaches have been recorded. Governments use these data to spur the self-interest and hackers are also out mining it for their criminal tendencies and benefits.