"Innovation is the heartbeat of technology while curiosity is it's driving force"

The world has already stepped into the fundamental phase of the 4.0 Industrial Revolution. We all technocrats are on a verge of developing high-tech sustainable solutions to existing issues with the help of Big Data technologies, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The booming realm of Artificial Intelligence with the recent production of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Bard and Big Data tools such as Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark are playing a paramount technical role in remodelling human lives and minimizing human effort. Big Data Analytics is being used in multifarious domains to produce effective outcomes thereby enhancing the decision-making ability of large firms by providing quality service.

Whether we have to decide about taking a road with less traffic or to book a table in our favourite restaurant, it is Big Data Analytics that’s making life easy. But what actually is Big Data and why is it so important? The term 'Big Data' simply refers to an enormous collection of large and complex datasets collected from various sources. Big Data is really huge and manipulating it is a cumbersome task indeed. Volume, Variety, Value, Velocity are the characteristic features of Big Data. Initially, it is just a bulk of information from which useful insights and outcomes can be derived only after numerous steps of data processing. Analysing Big Data and identifying trends and patterns is not a cakewalk. Data cleaning is a crucial fundamental step that contributes to the accuracy and reliability of the data under analysis. A series of steps such as Data Collection, Data Exploration, Handling missing data, Handling outliers, Standardization, Normalization, Sampling, Quality assessment, etc. have to be implemented before we finally reach our end result.

Through Big Data Analytics, we are privileged to identify the existence of underlying patterns and pre plan subsequently for the future by analysing current trends. Today, we are able to get a precise prediction about futuristic changes that may happen in any of the fields of Finance, HealthCare, Advertising, Education, Stock Market, etc through Big Data Analytics. It is influencing the business models and profitability of organizations. Companies use it to brainstorm their decision- making abilities and continue to outperform their competitors. Moreover, we can see the positive uplifting impact of Big Data in the healthcare industry. This has led to a rapid improvement in early diagnosis of patients, predicting the onset of possible diseases and the production of potent pharmacological drugs and vaccines beforehand. In this way, Big Data Analytics is uplifting and harmonizing human lives in healthcare industry.

Among the trending Big Data tools Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, Elasticsearch are some of the widely used. Apache Hadoop is a distributed processing framework that manages and processes large datasets across clusters of computers. Hadoop comes up with its storage system called HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System) and the MapReduce programming model. For example, Walmart uses Hadoop to track its sales trend. It identifies products that are selling well and makes decisions accordingly regarding its inventory levels, pricing and marketing campaigns.

Apache Hadoop has helped Walmart to gain insights into customer satisfaction thereby strengthening its business activities. Another example is Netflix which also uses Hadoop to process data from its streaming service. This data includes information about the preference of audience for movies and TV shows. Analytics on data pertaining to factors such as duration of movies watched, ratings given to watched content have earned Netflix deeper customer insights thereby personalizing the user experience. Of course, there are some areas where Big Data poses several challenges to the society. Protecting data and maintaining data privacy is one such important issue which can’t be overlooked. We must be aware about our data and save it from any unauthorized access. It is possible to transform this planet into a better living place by the parallel development, research and implementation of human ideas with the help of technology.