Scope for exploiting Big Data and Big Data Analytics in the local transport industry - Essay Example

The data being accumulated comes from a wide range of sources. However, the data growth is driven by two main sources working together with decreasing storage costs. The first source for data is the “internet of things”. A number of sensors collate information on our activities and environment on a daily basis. These connected devices contribute substantially to the amount of information accumulated daily and they are projected to rise from about 4.5 billion devices in 2010 to over 50 billion in 2020 (Dumbill, 2012).

The second greatest source of data is the social web of networks where information about human activities is shared on a daily basis. This includes data about human preferences, interests, and locations. On addition to the two major sources of data highlighted above, there are a number of other private sources including hospital records, phone communications, financial transactions, information captured on CCTV and many others. The McKinsey Global Institute has termed big data as the next frontier for competition, innovation, and global productivity (Mayinka, 2011).

The analysis of masses of unstructured and semi-structured data which some time ago would have been considered prohibitive in terms of time and money is now considered the next step towards business advantage. One of the reasons why this data has turned out to be very important is that great insight can be gained from the data by monitoring the patterns of human interaction. One of the areas in which big data displays great potential is the transportation industry. This is an industry which increasingly showing great requirement for an industrial big data platform.

With increasing urbanization and expansion of many cities across the world, traffic management and related challenges are getting bigger by the day. In some of the largest and more congested cities in the world, a lot of hours are lost daily on traffic and most people incur economic losses and social stress due to