User:MaureenJamieTob/sandbox

= Data Analysis =

What is Data Analysis?
Data Analysis is the process of gathering, cleaning, analyzing and mining data, interpreting results, and reporting the findings. By generating valuable insights through patterns and correlations between data points, enterprises can take well-informed decisions for future courses of actions from the analysis of past datasets.

History
The use of Analytics by businesses can be traced as far back as the 19th century, when Frederick Winslow Taylor initiated time management exercises. Another example is when Henry Ford measured the speed of assembly lines. In the late 1960s, Analytics began receiving more attention as computers became decision-making support systems. With the development of Big Data, Data Warehouses, the Cloud, and a variety of software and hardware, Data Analytics has evolved, significantly. Data Analytics involves the research, discovery, and interpretation of patterns within data.

The Data Ecosystem and its Key Players
The modern data ecosystem includes a network of interconnected, independent and continually evolving entities. Data is available in a variety of structured and unstructured datasets in various formats, namely, text, images, videos, click streams, user conversations, social media platforms, IoT devices, real-time eventsthat stream data, legacy databases, and data sourced from professional data agencies.

The key players in this ecosystem include the following:

 * Data Engineers convert raw data into usable data.


 * Data Analytics Professionals use this data to generate insights.
 * Data Scientists use Data Analytics and Data Engineering to predict the future using data from the past.
 * Business Analysts and Business Intelligence Analysts use these insights and predictions to drive decisions that benefit and grow their businesses.