Nowadays, managing massive databases has become routine for large and medium-sized companies; at first, this was common only among technology companies, but it is increasingly becoming a necessity in every sector. But how did people start working with the Big Data in Businesses? Is this technology as new as we think? And above all, what does the future hold for this technology?
When people talk about Big Data, they are referring to the handling large amounts of data structured (information generally organized into rows and columns, which can be easily filtered and sorted) or unstructured (data without any unifying criteria that would allow it to be sorted or filtered) with the goal of improve decision-making and optimize investment wherever possible.
The Origins of Big Data: The Need to Store Information
To understand how and why Big Data has become so important in today's businesses, we can trace the interest in storing data ever since the first glimmers of reason appeared in humans. As early as the Upper Paleolithic period, some 180,000 years B.C., rudimentary systems—such as sticks or notches carved into bones—were used to keep track of a group’s supplies. Although it may seem like a stretch to include something as ancient as the origins of Big Data, it helps us understand that storing information has been a necessity for almost our entire history as a species.
Along the same lines: The abacus and the first libraries would emerge in Babylon; in ancient Greece, mechanisms would be developed to predict astronomical positions based on numerical data; and much later, statistical and demographic data analysis would be used to keep track of the ravages of the bubonic plague. All of these analog systems share the same underlying purposes, have given rise to what is now known as Big Data, which has been refined by the technology of each era.
The Digital Evolution of Big Data in Businesses
In 1865, a very important milestone occurred, one that would foreshadow why the ownership and control of data would become such a crucial business tool. Richard Millar Devens introduced the term for the first time in his “Commercial Encyclopedia,” Business Intelligence, describing how a prominent banker of the time, by collecting, analyzing, and organizing financial data, managed to gain a significant advantage over his competitors. Business Intelligence It is, without a doubt, one of the applications that has driven the adoption of Big Data in companies.
As for the first major digital database, we must look 100 years later, when a major project was planned in the United States Data Center, in order to store tax records and citizens' fingerprints on magnetic tapes. This served to highlight the problem posed by storing such a large amount of data using the technology available at the time.
The next major leap would come in the 1990s, with the widespread adoption of internet access and instant messaging; furthermore, technology now allows for storing large amounts of data is affordable. And by the end of this decade, there will be so much information stored worldwide that the vast majority of it will never be seen by anyone.
Finally, in this new century, Big Data as we know it would take shape. In 2003, Doug Laney of Gartner introduced the concept of The 3 V's of Big Data (volume, speed, and variety); and on the other hand, Google released the Google File System (2003), MapReduce (2004), and BigTable (2006), which shaped Hadoop, the leading tool for managing large databases.
That is why today, companies of all kinds can use large amounts of data, of all kinds, to make decisions that adapt to market volatility, their customer records, or any type of information that could help optimize their product or service.
The Future of Big Data
Without a doubt, we are already experiencing the transition in which Big Data has gone from being a “nice-to-have” technology to a “must-have” for any company that hopes to survive in the markets of the coming years. According to reports from the World Economic Forum, 85% of the companies surveyed will increase their investment in Big Data systems by 2022. This means that the advantage will no longer lie with those who simply use this technology, but with those who know how to get the most out of it. the best possible use.
At Structuralia, we strive every day to offer the most up-to-date specialized training, which is why we offer a wide range of master’s programs in Big Data for anyone interested in this professional field and the application of Big Data in Businesses.
