What is big data?

Big data is redefining business management, marketing and operations principles while also transforming network performance requirements. Businesses in every industry are taking advantage of big data analytics to improve customer experiences, reduce costs, streamline operational processes and accelerate the pace of business.

But what is big data, exactly? For those who need an introduction or a refresher, the following brief on “What is big data?” offers a short explanation on the uses of big data and how to take advantage of its benefits.

What is big data?

Big data is simply a term for collecting, storing and analyzing massive amounts of business information from a broad array of devices and applications. Big data may include real-time and historical information about sales, manufacturing, supply chains and customer relationships. It can also include social media, website and network usage details. Information may be collected from everything from servers, PCs and tablets to smartphones, video cameras, sensors, smart meters and other connected devices.

What is big data’s benefit?

Using advanced analytics solutions, organizations can glean powerful business intelligence from big data that helps to drive innovation and increase competitiveness. Organizations use big data to fine-tune product offerings and business solutions, enhance customer interactions, improve fraud detection, realize manufacturing efficiencies, improve regulatory compliance, refine business continuity planning and much, much more.

What is big data’s impact on business?

Managing and analyzing massive amounts of data is a great challenge for most organizations. Organizations need both a big data architecture as well as the infrastructure to manage a surge of big traffic across a wide-area network (WAN) to successfully collect, store, analyze and retrieve their big data assets.

What is big data’s most significant challenge?

Bandwidth capacity and quality are critical challenges. The bulk of big data traffic is server-to-server and sensitive to latency. To effectively manage big data, organizations require WAN performance that resembles the bandwidth and latency normally found within a data center.

What is big data’s relationship to cloud computing?

Cloud solutions providers can offer significant resources for storing and moving big data. Cloud service providers also enable storage, analytics processing and traffic to scale more easily, helping to lower costs.

What is important in a big data network solution provider?

The ideal big data network solution provider should own its last-mile network and offer future-proof fiber solutions. Service-level agreements that set performance benchmarks for service reliability and availability are a must. Ethernet options are a plus, as organizations can significantly lower costs with Ethernet services that scale up to 100 Gbps. And providers that can bundle WAN, Internet and cloud services can offer further cost savings and simpler management.

What big data services does Spectrum Enterprise provide?

Spectrum Enterprise offers a range of scalable, flexible fiber technologies perfectly suited for managing big data effectively. Our Dedicated Fiber Internet solution and Ethernet Services provide bandwidth up to 100 Gbps. Our fiber services are delivered over a privately owned, nationwide fiber network. And our managed cloud solutions help to simplify management of infrastructure required for big data.

Learn more about network services from Spectrum Enterprise, or discover our solutions for disaster recovery planning and hospital TV.