Data Science, Big Data and Machine Learning – A Brief Overview

A new buzzword, “Data Science”, is becoming increasingly popular. With the advent of user-generated content from social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, there is a huge amount of data passing through the internet. Each time you share, like, dislike, comment or post, the action is captured. But how beneficial is that data, and why is it important for them to manage it?

Data Science vs. Big Data

Your data provides business with information about your particular preferences which fee into models that can use this information to present you with options you are more likely to choose. Have you ever thought about why Facebook replaced its “Like” button with several emojis? Well, that’s thanks to the user’s behavior and data science. Data science is not about making complex models or visualizations, nor is it about writing long lines of code. In fact, data science is about using data to create the greatest impact for your company. It can be in the form of insights into data, or data products, or using data in a visualization tool. Companies need more and more space to store huge amounts of online data calling it Big Data.  The ability to extract actionable insights into that information is what we call Data Science.

Most companies are more focused on a data-driven approach for their product instead of a knowledge-driven approach. And this approach is used for many products include web sites, apps, information services and physical products. IOT devices lead by Amazon Alexa and Google Home are changing our lives completely along with the way we interact with machines and devices.

Data Science vs. Machine learning

Data Science and Machine Learning (ML) are growing at an astronomical rate and many professionals are now shifting their focus in this field. But both are not the same and the work performed also depends on the scale of the organization. Data Science heavily influences and impacts the AI and machine learning algorithms. Machine learning is the study of statistical data and algorithm models that a computer system uses to enhance learning models and experience.

Machine learning is heavily based on data science which in turn relies on big data. The more big data you have the better product you can come up with. Each interaction you have is recorded. Data Science varies greatly by type and size of company. A small company may only have one employee in the role of data science, statistics, reporting and analytics. A medium-sized corporation may have software developers working alongside data scientists. Large corporations have even more specialized teams and individuals working on every part of the stack.

The amount of data being collected is continually increasing whether by social media, devices, apps or IOT. Making sense of all this data and learning about customer behavior and preferences means that Data Science is here to stay.