As a decision maker, you need to use data to take the right direction, ask the right questions, and eventually opt for solutions that fit your business. But how to best exploit the potential offered by Big Data, Business Analytics, Datamining, Data Warehousing, Artificial Intelligence etc? This course will take the buzz out of these buzzwords and offer you research based insight into the power and limitations of data analytics.
The course is built around two complementary modules:
A. Analytics as a Service. In this module we start from the observation that public clouds provide a wide range of services that can be combined to build advanced analytics solutions. These services include (i) data platforms for storing, managing and processing data at rest as well as streaming data, and (ii) analytics services based on machine learning, data mining or streaming analytics. We will review the architectural principles that underlie advanced analytics solutions based on such services. We will also discuss in depth issues related to non-functional requirements such as performance and security. We will also discuss the differences between big data analytics and business intelligence.
B. Inside Analytics. In this module, we will review the processes that make it possible to extract insights from data. We will rely on concrete examples and real data sets to analyse successive analytics stages: data exploration, data preparation, data mining and data visualisation. We will illustrate the most common problems encountered in each stage and we will review the fundamental principles that underlie most solutions.
The course enables you to:
- Analyse the basic components of a modern data analytics IT infrastructure
- Evaluate infrastructure designs proposed by your team or suppliers
- Decompose the computation processes of data driven analytics
- Identify strong predictors of business analytics queries
- Avoid pitfalls of datamining and business intelligence
- Understand how datamining algorithms go beyond classical statistics by using data structures such as trees and graphs
The course helps your business by giving you the foundation for informed decisions:
- Organize your analytics team and hire people with competences that fit your needs
- Choose the right technical solutions from your team and suppliers
- Set a roadmap for your team that achieves your analytics business goals
- Avoid costly setbacks of buzzword right, but content wrong solutions for your business