Information Technology evolves through disruption waves. Cloud Computing and Machine Learning algorithms spark surge of Artificial Intelligence software solutions and they are likely driving the top disruption wave into innovative products and services. The Cloud Computing exponentially accumulates data and enables the capacity, scalability and performance for big data. Cloud Computing and Big Data Technologies are converging to offer a cost-effective delivery model for cloud-based Big Data Analytics.

Big data refers to huge data sets that are orders of magnitude larger (volume); more diverse and complicate (variety); and arriving faster (velocity) than before. In addition, it’s heterogeneous and comes in many formats, including text, document, image, video, and more.

The real value of big data is in the insights it produces when analyzed—discovered patterns, derived meaning, indicators for decisions, and ultimately the ability to respond to the world with greater intelligence. Big data analytics is a set of advanced technologies designed to work with large volumes of heterogeneous data. It uses sophisticated quantitative methods such as Data Mining, Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Computational Mathematics/Statistics, and Artificial Intelligence to explore the data and to discover interrelationships and patterns.

Data Mining is using statistics and programming languages to find patterns hidden in the data. Machine Learning uses data mining to build models to predict future outcomes. Artificial Intelligence uses models built by machine learning to make machines act in an intelligent way. Big Data Analytics is a set of advanced technologies described above and it is the process of studying big data to uncover hidden patterns and correlations to make better decisions.