ficantly in the field. The current data sources for Big Data includes but is not limited to buyer information from retailers, information posted by individuals on social networking sites as well as historic enterprise data of production and sales. As Big Data is generated through the interaction of multiple factors, advances in the analytics of large datasets are expected to result in the introduction of techniques capable of handling more and more variables using available computing resources.
Recently Publicized Commercial uses of Big Data
Recent examples included the targeted marketing of baby products by the US-based retailer Target, which used these emerging techniques to determine customers who would require baby care products in the recent future based on their purchase patterns. The source of the data was the information collected by Target from its customers during previous visits to their outlets. Each buyer is assigned an ID number in Target’s database and their purchases are tracked. This information was processed and leveraged by Target in order to predict customer buying patterns and design targeted marketing campaigns.
Additional sources of these datasets for use by business intelligence solutions include information available on public forums; social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter as well as the digital shadows left by our visit to websites. Such data is analyzed by Amazon and correlated with the product analysis, searches and reviews of other individuals to generate more accurate product recommendations for visitors to its online shopping website. Apart from business use, the capability to collect, classify and analyze such large data quantities would also be crucial for the Healthcare industry by helping the identification and analysis of drug interactions, personal medical as well as various social and economic factors which affect the outcome of treatments. The analysis of Big Data refers to a new world of data science, which Cisco estimates will be comprised of about 10 billion internet-enabled devices.