DATA & ANALYTICS
Following the
DATA SCIENCE
Why is data science so important , what are the emerging trends and where is its future ?
WRITTEN BY : LAURA BERRILL
Data science , or data-driven science , basically enables businesses to make better decisions . It allows them to find the leading cause of any problems by asking the right questions , perform explanatory studies on the data and model it using algorithms . The results are then communicated and visualised via whatever means necessary , for example graphs or dashboards .
“Every modern business has the ambition of being data led , meaning vast amounts of data is being accumulated ”
RAJASEKAR SUKUMAR VP EUROPE , PERSISTENT
It ’ s directly because companies across all sectors and industries are sitting on an ever-growing treasure trove of data that modern technology has enabled the creation and storage of increasing amounts of information and as a result , its volumes have exploded . It is estimated 90 per cent of the data in the world was created just in the past two years . However , this data is still often sitting in databases and lakes , mostly untouched . That ’ s where data science comes in . Data is the bedrock of innovation , but its actual value comes from the information data scientists can glean from it and then act upon in a business ’ best interests and objectives .
A high flying example In practice , data science is already helping the airline industry , as one example , by helping predict disruptions in travel in order to alleviate the pain for both airlines and passengers . With the help of data science , airlines can optimise their operations in many ways . These include planning routes and deciding whether to schedule direct or connecting flights ; building predictive analytics models to forecast flight delays ; offer personalised promotional offers , based on customer booking patterns and decide which class of planes to purchase for better overall performance .
There are some main technical concepts to explore before any move into data
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