Industry professionals and geeks from around the world are attending The Big Data World Forum 2016 in Beijing to discuss the sector's latest technology, including cyber attacks and other security issues. While the threat of data breaches worries some, it also opens up business opportunities for others.
Big Data- A buzz word still buzzing. Now in its 6th year, the Big Data World Forum that's in session today (Thursday) and Friday gathers some of the industry's most influential business decision makers, strategists, architects, and developers.
What the experts have in common is that they collect, analyze, and manipulate data from across financial services, healthcare, oil & gas, government, and other sectors.
Mobile internet player Cheetah is going big on big data. It mainly collects data on gender and age, and the type of mobile apps and news information.
Hadoop - an open-source software framework for storing data - as well as the data processing engine Spark are the latest talk of the town here.
New regulations on capital markets also require better reporting of hedges and trades. That requires more and more number crunching and analytic tools.
You might ask yourself - is big data still a big deal? The answer: yes it is. With the rise in cyber attacks, online pirates, and hacked email and bank accounts around the globe, Big Data has also become an increasingly big ticket item.
Recent cases of data breaches and hacking scandals have pushed companies, governments as well as individuals to cash in and protect their information.
That's why industry experts have come up with a new term: the "insight economy".
The International Data Corporation forecasts that worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics will grow from 122 billion US dollars in 2015 to more than $187 billion in 2019, a jump of more than 60%.
Anti-virus software company McAfee estimates that cyber crime costs the global economy $500 billion every year. But, those figures are based on known data only, the real amount is likely much higher.
