Enterprise data has never been of such prominence as in the recent past. One of the dominant challenges of today's major data influx in enterprises is establishing a future-proof strategy focused on deriving meaningful insights tangibly contributing to business growth.
This chapter introduces readers to the core aspects of Big Data, standard analytical techniques, and data science as a practice in business context. In the chapters that follow, these topics are further elaborated with a step-by-step implementation guide to use Greenplum's Unified Analytics Platform (UAP).
The topics covered in this chapter are listed as follows:
Enterprise data and its characteristics
Context of Big Data—a definition and the paradigm shift
Data formats such as structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data
Data analysis, need, and overview of important analytical techniques (statistical, predictive, mining, and so on)
The philosophy of data science and its standard life cycle