We all understand that there is tremendous value sitting within big data. We can debate whether or not it’s the new oil, but clearly, data scientists can tease out incredible behavior patterns from large amounts of data that they collect and use past behaviors to predict future expectations.

Big data essentially has three sources: social data, machine data and transactional data. Social data is comprised of a consumer’s online behavior. Their searches, likes, dislikes and other trackable activities provide insights into consumer sentiment. Machine data is generated by machines, such as automobiles, mobile devices and other connected objects, and it is composed of actual human behaviors. Transactional data is generated by online and offline transactions and records.

Source: forbes.com
Author: Nimrod Kaplan