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BUSINESS
W
hat
we t ra-
ditionally do
with data is
that we collect
it, analyse and
get the insights
we need in
order to add considerable value to our
business.
Sure, it is achievable if we deal with
“smaller” amounts of data – we have
established technological resources such
as Business Analytics (BA) or Business
Intelligence (BI) to deal with that.
Now, what if we have a larger expanse
of data, full of all sorts of important but
otherwise easily missed out information
hiding in nooks and crannies, waiting to
be harnessed?
The concept of Big Data is not a terribly
difficult one to understand. Consider
this – let’s say there is a gigantic natural
lake and you need accuratemeasurements
of the volume, and contents of that lake.
However, at the same time, water from
different sources (such as streams, rain
and others) would be flowing in, and at
the same time there is water flowing out
to the sea at the same time – completely
disrupting your analysis process.
Unlike your pool, this lake is teeming
with a profound amount of information
(such as the microflora, microfauna, pH
and other natural phenomenon) that is
key to ensuring that the eco-diversity and
balance of the lake and its surroundings
are in natural order.
Unless it’s aman-made lake, youwould
have trouble accurately determining the
type and volume of content it holds at
any given point of time – simply because
the current technology you have cannot
handle analysing the contents of the lake
quickly and accurately enough to give you
the insights you sorely need.
This is what Big Data is like – a large
expanse of information is to be harnessed
but which is constantly in motion, in and
out of the data sphere. There is, however,
a potential of immense proportions in the
information that it can provide for a more
Big Data Analytics
Harnessing the unbridled power of information
transportation.
As such, the predictive quality is further
refined and a more accurate picture can
be obtained, paving the way for future re-
search to curb the spread of such diseases.
It is precisely this kind of immense level
of analytics potential that makes Big Data
so attractive. There are various ramifica-
tions of BDA application, such as in driving
new markets or targeting better growth,
as well as when it comes to nation or
world-wide predictive behaviours, such as
in criminal analytics, politics, epidemiology
and health research into diseases – these
are but a few of the potential applications
BDA can have.
Relevance of Big Data to Malaysia
The Government has given Malaysia’s
Multimedia Development Corporation
(MDeC) the mandate to lead the nation’s
Digital Transformation Programme, which
is called Digital Malaysia.
In the recently held Digital Malaysia
media briefing this year, Datuk Seri Ahmad
Shabery Cheek (Malaysia’s Minister of
Communications and Multimedia) said
Malaysia’s aspiration toward becoming
a developed nation and fully developed
digital economy will depend heavily on
how well it adopts BDA.
Ahmad Shabery said: “The explosion of
data does not meanmuch if businesses are
not capturing, integrating and analysing
the wealth of data to uncover new insights
about their customers, products, markets
and operations.”
Ahmad Shabery urged that it is impera-
tive for key public and private players in
Malaysia’s digital economy to unlock the
value driven by data to create spillover
multiplier benefits such as game-changing
innovations, productivity gains and com-
petitive enhancement.
WithBDAsolutions, governments, busi-
nesses and citizens can gainmuch-needed
feedback and precious insights that can
tremendously improve decision-making
processes.
MDeC clearly understands the massive
potential and applicability of BDA to drive
national economic growth for the nation,
says Ir. Dr. Karl Ng, the agency’s Director
of Innovation Capital Division.
“A successful national BDA initiative
will affect each and every Malaysian. Its
economic benefits are immense,” stressed
Karl Ng, whose division leads the national
BDA initiative.
He adds: “Big Data is a key transforma-
important overarching need, if not for the
fact that it is quite impossible to harvest
something of that magnitude quickly and
accurately enough to reach the personwho
needs the information.
The importance of Big Data
It is not so much the importance of Big
Data per se as it is the analysis of it, called
“Big Data Analysis”.
BDA is the process of scrutinising large
amounts of data in order to uncover here-
tofore-unknown correlations, relationships,
patterns, in order to improve analytics
insights and hence allow for better decision
making. This may sound unimpressive
right now, but when you think about its
implications in real-world situations, it is
easy to see why it’s such a hotly debated
and discussed topic right now.
What if we have a larger expanse of data, full
of all sorts of important but otherwise easily
missed out information hiding in nooks and
crannies, waiting to be harnessed?
For example, it was widely reported in
September of last year that IBMwas work-
ingwith JohnsHopkins University by using
Big Data Analytics (BDA) to track and
predict Dengue outbreaks as well as fever
andmalaria. Aside from that, together with
University of California at San Francisco,
they utilised analytics to see howvariables
such as rainfall and temperature can affect
the eco-movements of large numbers of
wild insects and animals who carry afore-
mentioned diseases, on top of mashing
that data with older ones such as airport
and highway traffic in order to understand
the patterns and rates of infection brought
about by climate change, trade and global