Both types of data can transform the world, but when government turns big data into open data it's especially powerful.

Big Data and the new phenomenon open data are closely related but they're not the same. Open data brings a perspective that can make big data more useful, more democratic, and less threatening.

For Business Big And Small, Big Data Is A Big Deal. Did you know that 90% of the world's data was generated in the past 2 years?

Moreover, every minute on the internet there are more than 2 million Google searches, 685,000 Facebook updates, 200 million sent emails and 48 hours worth of video uploaded to YouTube. Not in a day or a week, but in a minute.

A new report from Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), an organization that offers forecasting and advisory services to business, said companies that rate themselves as “substantially ahead” of their peers in their use of data are three times more likely to rate themselves ahead in terms of financial performance.

EDA had to face the challenge to go from a six-month plan down to a four-month plan. As a company, EDA lives and breathes data. EDA's transactional data helps its customers guide strategic planning and day-to-day operations, identify regional hot spots and competitor market share, anticipate growth trends and emerging markets, exploit new product opportunities and target qualified prospects using detailed contact information and equipment purchasing histories.

Big data means a lot of things to a lot of different people, but what is becoming increasingly clear is that big data is about real-time analysis and data driven decision-making. Now Big Data is playing key role in Healthcare and several health institutes are seeking a solution that could bring the very latest drug interaction data right to patients’ bedsides.

SAS has opened a research and development (R&D) centre in Glasgow, focused on combatting fraud and financial crimes.

The Scottish centre joins other SAS global R&D centres, including its R&D division headquartered in the US.

The world of sports loves statistics. In fact, there is a growing movement in several professional leagues to make data analytics techniques a bigger part of the decision-making process. The world of business could learn a lot from professional sports teams and leagues as they move to embrace data-driven decisions.

The use of Big Data and analytics has become more common and accepted in the business world, and business leaders are finding new ways in which to utilize them. Many companies have already used Big Data in marketing and advertising, but a new area has quickly emerged. Human resource departments are now using data analytics in the hiring and recruitment, essentially transforming how many businesses work.