'Big Data' to boost economy by 2017

09:02 08 May 2012

Britain amasses vast amounts of something that's referred to as Big Data, which is so valuable it could, over the next five years, be worth the equivalent of a quarter of our current national debt and create 58 thousand jobs; but a recent study shows UK businesses arenÂ’t tapping into it because they donÂ’t know how to unlock value from it.

Research by independent body CEBR (Centre for Economics and Business Research) and SAS puts the total value of Big Data at £216billion pounds over the next five years, but only if organisations learn how to process the growing information they’re capturing.

CEBR economist, Shehan Mohamed said:

"Businesses are in a place to harness Big Data, and through the right technology, they can really power this ahead.

Analysts behind Data Equity: Unlocking The Value of Big Datasay if businesses can process and properly analyse all this information, then they will grow their customer base, create new products and make efficiency savings that will deliver a significant boost to the economy.

High-Performance Analytics rapidly increases the speed at which valuable insights are extracted from this Big Data - giving results in seconds rather than hours or days – encouraging innovation, and improving productivity and working practices.

But itÂ’s not just the private sector that needs to do more; the study builds on a report published in March by independent think tank DEMOS, which called on the Government to be more radical with its Big Data approach.

They were told frontline public sector staff like nurses, social workers and police should be armed with iPad-style data stores to keep track of service users and their specific needs, giving them real-time information that can be shared and analysed.

For more information on Big Data and its potential value to the UK economy, visit www.sas.com/uk.