Big Data in Australia: Statistics, Facts and Trends

An increasing number of Australian businesses are realizing the great benefits of using big data solutions to manage and analyze their data.

Big data is not just a fad; it is changing the way businesses operate and solve problems. If it is properly implemented, a big data system can help businesses unlock value from previously unattainable data, enabling them to perform a wide range of tasks more effectively and efficiently.

Here is a look at the adoption of big data in Australia.

Big Data in Australia

According to a survey report released by the International Data Corporation, or IDC, in 2013, about 80 percent of Australian businesses have either implemented big data analytics or plan to use big data analytics in the following 12 months.

Also, one third of the companies said that big data solutions are essential to their businesses. The results of the survey also revealed that the level of maturity in big data adoption varies significantly from one company to another.

While some businesses are only in the discovery phase, others are already using advanced big data analytics to facilitate decision making.

Presently, Australia is still relatively far behind the United States in terms of big data adoption, but it should see a substantial increase in adoption rate this year.

How Big Data Can Be Beneficial to Australian Companies

Big data refers to a collection of large and complex data sets that cannot be easily processed using traditional data management or processing applications.

A big data solution enables companies to collect, store, transfer, analyze and visualize a large quantity and variety of data at high speeds. It makes it possible for them to get valuable insights into new types of data to increase business agility and answers to questions that were previously unknowable.

By implementing a big data system, Australian businesses can discover new data patterns and relationships that can impact their businesses, make better informed decisions, predict outcomes and trends more accurately, speed up the process of identifying and solving problems, gain a better understanding of customers and develop better products and services.

However, big data also poses a number of challenges for businesses.

It can be difficult to deliver effective visualization for big data and hire people with specialized big data skills.

Australian Companies Putting Big Data to Good Use

Many Australian companies are already using bid data analytics extensively, and some of them are benefiting greatly from the new technology.

For instance, mining giant, Rio Tinto, set up a new process center in Brisbane earlier this year to analyze data generated by its mining plants and drill rigs.

The process center helped the company lower costs by about $90 million just one day after its opening, and it also increased productivity significantly.

General Electric is another Australian company that has been investing heavily on big data solutions. It formed a partnership with Amazon Web Services last year to make data on jet engines, gas turbines and other products available on the Internet for analysis.

The company estimated that big data analytics of the performance of its jet engines can help it save $2 billion on fuel costs annually.

As more and more Australian companies are implementing big data solutions, those that have not joined the big data fray should do so as soon as possible to achieve a strong competitive advantage.

About the Author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of subjects, from social media marketing to Cloud computing.