The increasing role of information technology in different domains of life is producing new inventions every day. Every industry and every sphere of life has gone through a data revolution over the last decade. By the year 2025, the global data will reach an unbelievable 17.5 trillion GBs. What are we exactly going to do with all that data? Is it useful? Does it carry any meaning? IT has answered all these questions through Big Data. The new hot topic of the data industry is the rise of big data. 

As evident from the term, big data refers to the enormous data sets that an organization accumulates over time. These data sets include all structured, semi-structured, and also unstructured data. Big data is the science of applying analytical techniques to these enormous data sets and deriving valuable insights from them. It has become essential for modern-day organizations because it is not the size of the data that matters but its use. More and more organizations recognize the increasing significance of big data and make it a regular part of their decision-making.

Big data mainly functions across three V’s: Volume, Velocity, and Variety. It performs tasks over a high volume of data. It controls the velocity at which the data is accumulated. It also deals with different variety of data across various domains. In short, it is a one size fits all scenario for data management and analyses. 

The use of big data has become inevitable in different fields of life. It has increased in popularity quite rapidly. This article highlights four of such areas to showcase the significance in 2021. 

  • Inclusion in the academia

Online platforms observed a record enrolment in masters in data science online in 2020-21. Leading organizations persuaded their employee base to opt for such online programs to remain abreast of changing industry trends. Additionally, a large number of students are showing interest in the field of data science. Whereas, there was a time when no one could even think of these fields in mainstream educational institutions. This transformation itself makes the significance of big data evident in contemporary times. 

On the other side, big data is also playing a progressive role in the education sector. It is helping education institution manage their vast data sets and use them to their advantage. It is providing quick access to analytical reports like year-over-year enrolments and student progress. Moreover, it has also aided the education delivery model. Modern-day data-driven education delivery designs enable educators to create personalized lesson plans according to students’ needs. Educators can also help students decide their majors and areas of specialization for further education based on data trends. Thus, big data applications in education have transformed the entire performance monitoring system. 

  • Uplifting the Financial Sector

According to TechTarget reports, the generated data by financial institutions will increase by 700% by the end of this year. Big data acts as the cornerstone for the entire Fintech industry. Everything utilizes big data applications in the back end, from online payment gateways to website embedded payment modes. Additionally, most large companies are now moving towards data-driven financial optimization. The digital transformation of their monetary analyses provides better profit and loss understanding and bolsters financial decision-making. 

According to a survey of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA®) members, 53% of respondents develop a financial strategy using big data. Though the financial sector is not a stranger to digitalization, big data has provided an entirely new dimension to financial analytics. It has changed the operations of not only the individual organizations but the entire financial sector. Real-time stock monitoring, fraud detection, risk analysis, and financial data security have reached unprecedented levels. 

  • Creating Novel Marketing Channels

Currently, there are 4.66 billion internet users in the world. The number has increased during the COVID pandemic. More and more people went online for their routine tasks, which also includes shopping. According to Forbes, the pandemic pushed up the use of the internet by 60%. So these people are not coming back to manual modes. Therefore, marketing efforts need to target them on the same online platforms. That is where big data helps to devise a data-driven marketing strategy. 

It helps understand the customer in a better manner. Marketers can then design a more personalized marketing campaign. Ultimately, data helps to increase brand awareness. It also provides a comprehensive illustration of the return on investment (ROI) of marketing efforts. Once all these insights are gathered, the overall customer acquisition for a business enhances. The entire marketing approach becomes more customer-centric. Consequently, the company develops better competitive marketing tools. As a survey by McKinsey quotes, marketers utilizing big data analytics are more likely to outperform the competition. 

  • Bolstering AI, VR, and AR

Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality are all creations in the extension of big data applications. Artificial intelligence is transforming the entire machine learning domain. It is helping us to instill better automation in different processes. Similarly, virtual reality is providing next-generation support to the animation and media industry. Augmented reality has opened new avenues of customer engagement and education transfer. All these modern-day innovations have limitless applicability in different domains of life.

Big data acts as the backbone for all these tech advancements. It is the data that you feed into the AI, VR, and AR engines. These engines then process the information based on the provided data. Therefore, the data sets generated through big data analyses are essential for their optimal performance. 

Conclusion

The global big data market size is estimated at a whopping $139 billion and will reach $230 billion by 2025. It will undoubtedly cause a disruption wherever information technology is applicable. Looking at the current pace of digitalization, one can only expect that our dependence on data will increase further. Therefore, big data applications will continue to play a massive role in every progressive domain of the world.