INTRODUCTIO

N
What is data science?
Data science is the study of data to extract meaningful insights for business. It is a
multidisciplinary approach that combines principles and practices from the fields of
mathematics, statistics, artificial intelligence, and computer engineering to analyze large
amounts of data. This analysis helps data scientists to ask and answer questions like
what happened, why it happened, what will happen, and what can be done with the
results
Data science combines math and statistics, specialized programming, advanced analytics,
artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning with specific subject matter expertise to
uncover actionable insights hidden in an organization’s data. These insights can be used to
guide decision making and strategic planning.

Data Science has become the most demanding job of the 21st
century. Every organization is looking for candidates with
knowledge of data science.

Data science uses the most powerful hardware, programming

systems, and most efficient algorithms to solve the data related
problems. It is the future of artificial intelligence.

In short, we can say that data science is all about:

o Asking the correct questions and analyzing the raw data.

o Modeling the data using various complex and efficient
algorithms.
o Visualizing the data to get a better perspective.
 o Understanding the data to make better decisions and finding
the final result.

Example:
o Let suppose we want to travel from station A to station B by
car. Now, we need to take some decisions such as which route
will be the best route to reach faster at the location, in which
route there will be no traffic jam, and which will be cost-
effective. All these decision factors will act as input data, and
we will get an appropriate answer from these decisions, so this
analysis of data is called the data analysis, which is a part of
data science.

What are the 5 importance of data?

1) Decision-making,
2) Problem solving,
3) Understanding,
4) Improving processes,
5) Understanding customers.

Types of Data Science Job

The main job roles are given below:

1. Data Scientist
2. Data Analyst
3. Machine learning expert
4. Data engineer
5. Data Architect
6. Data Administrator
7. Business Analyst
8. Business Intelligence Manager
Below is the explanation of some critical job titles of data science.

1. Data Analyst:

Data analyst is an individual, who performs mining of huge amount

of data, models the data, looks for patterns, relationship, trends,
and so on. At the end of the day, he comes up with visualization
and reporting for analyzing the data for decision making and
problem-solving process.

Skill required: For becoming a data analyst, you must get a good
background in mathematics, business intelligence, data mining,
and basic knowledge of statistics. You should also be familiar with
some computer languages and tools such as MATLAB, Python,
SQL, Hive, Pig, Excel, SAS, R, JS, Spark, etc.

2. Machine Learning Expert:

The machine learning expert is the one who works with various
machine learning algorithms used in data science such
as regression, clustering, classification, decision tree, random
forest, etc.

Skill Required: Computer programming languages such as Python,

C++, R, Java, and Hadoop. You should also have an understanding
of various algorithms, problem-solving analytical skill, probability,
and statistics.

3. Data Engineer:

A data engineer works with massive amount of data and

responsible for building and maintaining the data architecture of a
data science project. Data engineer also works for the creation of
data set processes used in modeling, mining, acquisition, and
verification.
Skill required: Data engineer must have depth knowledge of SQL,
MongoDB, Cassandra, HBase, Apache Spark, Hive, MapReduce,
with language knowledge of Python, C/C++, Java, Perl, etc.

4. Data Scientist:

A data scientist is a professional who works with an enormous

amount of data to come up with compelling business insights
through the deployment of various tools, techniques,
methodologies, algorithms, etc.

Skill required: To become a data scientist, one should have

technical language skills such as R, SAS, SQL, Python, Hive, Pig,
Apache spark, MATLAB. Data scientists must have an
understanding of Statistics, Mathematics, visualization, and
communication skills.

Skills Required

Several of the most crucial technical data scientist skills include:

 Big Data

 Machine Learning

 Deep Learning

 Mathematics

 Processing large data sets

 Data Visualization

 Programming

 Statistical analysis

Data Science Components:

1. Statistics: Statistics is one of the most important components of
data science. Statistics is a way to collect and analyze the numerical
data in a large amount and finding meaningful insights from it.

2. Domain Expertise: In data science, domain expertise binds data

science together. Domain expertise means specialized knowledge or
skills of a particular area. In data science, there are various areas for
which we need domain experts.

3. Data engineering: Data engineering is a part of data science,

which involves acquiring, storing, retrieving, and transforming the
data. Data engineering also includes metadata (data about data) to
the data.

4. Visualization: Data visualization is meant by representing data in

a visual context so that people can easily understand the
significance of data. Data visualization makes it easy to access the
huge amount of data in visuals.

5. Advanced computing: Heavy lifting of data science is advanced

computing. Advanced computing involves designing, writing,
debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer
programs.

6. Mathematics: Mathematics is the critical part of data science.

Mathematics involves the study of quantity, structure, space, and
changes. For a data scientist, knowledge of good mathematics is
essential.

7. Machine learning: Machine learning is backbone of data science.

Machine learning is all about to provide training to a machine so
that it can act as a human brain. In data science, we use various
machine learning algorithms to solve the problems.
Tools for Data Science
Following are some tools required for data science:

o Data Analysis tools: R, Python, Statistics, SAS, Jupyter, R

Studio, MATLAB, Excel, RapidMiner.
o Data Warehousing: ETL, SQL, Hadoop, Informatica/Talend,
AWS Redshift
o Data Visualization tools: R, Jupyter, Tableau, Cognos.
o Machine learning tools: Spark, Mahout, Azure ML studio.

What are the benefits of data science for

business?
Improves Business Predictions
A proven data science company can put your data to work for your
business using predictive analysis and structuring your data. The data
science services they provide use cutting-edge technology such as
machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to help analyze your
company’s data layout and make future decisions that will work in your
favour. When utilized to its full potential, predictive data allows you to
make better business decisions!
Business Intelligence
Data scientists can collaborate with RPA professionals to identify various
data science services in their business. They can then develop automated
dashboards that search all of this data in real-time in an integrated
way. This intelligence will allow your company’s managers to make
faster and more accurate decisions.
Helps in Sales & Marketing
Data-driven marketing is an all-encompassing term these days. It is
because only with data can you offer solutions, communications, and
products that meet customer expectations. If you work with a data
science company, they will use a combination of data from multiple
sources and provide more precise insights for your teams. Imagine
obtaining the complete customer journey map, including all touch points
of your customers with your brand. Data science services make this
imagination a reality!
Increases Information Security
Data science has many benefits, including its ability to be implemented
in the field of data security. Needless to say, there are many possibilities
in this area. Professional data scientists can help you keep your
customers safe by creating fraud prevention systems. Additionally, they
can also analyze recurring patterns of behaviour in company systems to
find architectural flaws.
Complex Data Interpretation
Data Science can be a great tool to combine different data sources to
understand the market and business better. You can combine data from
both “physical” and “virtual sources depending on which tools to use for
data collection. This allows you to visualize the market better.
Helps in Making Decisions
One of the major benefits of working with a data science company is its
proven ability to help your business make informed decisions based on
structured predictive data analysis. They can create tools that allow them
to view data in real-time, producing results and allowing more agility
for business leaders. This can be done by using dashboards or
projections made possible by a data scientist’s data treatment.
Automating Recruitment Processes

Data Science is a key reason for the introduction of automation to many

industries. It has eliminated repetitive and mundane jobs. Resume
screening is one such job. Companies deal with thousands of resumes
every day. Many companies can receive thousands of resumes to fill a
job. Businesses use data science to make sense of all these resumes and
find the right candidate. Image recognition, which uses data science
technology to convert visual information from resumes into digital
format, is an apt example of a data science services application. The
data is then processed using different analytical algorithms such as
classification and clustering to find the best candidate for the job.
Businesses also analyze the potential candidates for the job and look at
the trends. This allows them to reach out to potential candidates and
provides an in-depth view of the job-seeker marketplace.

What is the data science process?

Data Science is all about a systematic process used by Data Scientists to
analyze, visualize and model large amounts of data. A data science process
helps data scientists use the tools to find unseen patterns, extract data, and
convert information to actionable insights that can be meaningful to the
company. This aids companies and businesses in making decisions that can
help in customer retention and profits. Further, a data science process helps
in discovering hidden patterns of structured and unstructured raw data. The
process helps in turning a problem into a solution by treating the business
problem as a project. So, let us learn what is data science process is in detail
and what are the steps involved in a data science process.
The six steps of the data science process are as follows:
1. Frame the problem
2. Collect the raw data needed for your problem
3. Process the data for analysis
4. Explore the data
5. Perform in-depth analysis
 6. Communicate results of the analysis

As the data science process stages help in converting raw data into monetary
gains and overall profits, any data scientist should be well aware of the
process and its significance. Now, let us discuss these steps in detail.

Steps in Data Science Process

A data science process can be more accurately understood through data
science online courses and certifications on data science. But, here is a step-
by-step guide to help you get familiar with the process.

Step 1: Framing the Problem

Before solving a problem, the pragmatic thing to do is to know what exactly
the problem is. Data questions must be first translated to actionable business
questions. People will more than often give ambiguous inputs on their issues.
And, in this first step, you will have to learn to turn those inputs into
actionable outputs.
A great way to go through this step is to ask questions like:
 Who the customers are?
 How to identify them?
 What is the sale process right now?
 Why are they interested in your products?
 What products they are interested in?
You will need much more context from numbers for them to become
insights. At the end of this step, you must have as much information at hand
as possible.
Step 2: Collecting the Raw Data for the Problem
After defining the problem, you will need to collect the requisite data to
derive insights and turn the business problem into a probable solution. The
process involves thinking through your data and finding ways to collect and
get the data you need. It can include scanning your internal databases or
purchasing databases from external sources.
Many companies store the sales data they have in customer relationship
management (CRM) systems. The CRM data can be easily analyzed by
exporting it to more advanced tools using data pipelines.

Step 3: Processing the Data to Analyze

After the first and second steps, when you have all the data you need, you
will have to process it before going further and analyzing it. Data can be
messy if it has not been appropriately maintained, leading to errors that
easily corrupt the analysis. These issues can be values set to null when they
should be zero or the exact opposite, missing values, duplicate values, and
many more. You will have to go through the data and check it for problems
to get more accurate insights.
The most common errors that you can encounter and should look out for are:
1. Missing values
2. Corrupted values like invalid entries
3. Time zone differences
4. Date range errors like a recorded sale before the sales even started
You will have to also look at the aggregate of all the rows and columns in the
file and see if the values you obtain make sense. If it doesn’t, you will have
to remove or replace the data that doesn’t make sense. Once you have
completed the data cleaning process, your data will be ready for an
exploratory data analysis (EDA).
Step 4: Exploring the Data
In this step, you will have to develop ideas that can help identify hidden
patterns and insights. You will have to find more interesting patterns in the
data, such as why sales of a particular product or service have gone up or
down. You must analyze or notice this kind of data more thoroughly. This is
one of the most crucial steps in a data science process.
Step 5: Performing In-depth Analysis
This step will test your mathematical, statistical, and technological
knowledge. You must use all the data science tools to crunch the data
successfully and discover every insight you can. You might have to prepare a
predictive model that can compare your average customer with those who are
underperforming. You might find several reasons in your analysis, like age or
social media activity, as crucial factors in predicting the consumers of a
service or product.
You might find several aspects that affect the customer, like some
people may prefer being reached over the phone rather than social
media. These findings can prove helpful as most of the marketing done
nowadays is on social media and only aimed at the youth. How the product is
marketed hugely affects sales, and you will have to target demographics that
are not a lost cause after all. Once you are all done with this step, you can
combine the quantitative and qualitative data that you have and move them
into action.
Step 6: Communicating Results of this Analysis
After all these steps, it is vital to convey your insights and findings to
the sales head and make them understand their importance. It will
help if you communicate appropriately to solve the problem you have
been given. Proper communication will lead to action. In contrast,
improper contact may lead to inaction.
You need to link the data you have collected and your insights with the sales
head’s knowledge so that they can understand it better. You can start by
explaining why a product was underperforming and why specific
demographics were not interested in the sales pitch. After presenting the
problem, you can move on to the solution to that problem. You will have to
make a strong narrative with clarity and strong objectives.
Significance of Data Science Process
Following a data science process has various benefits for any organization.
Also, it has become extremely important for achieving success in any
business. Here are the reasons that should give you a nudge to include a data
science process in your data collection routine:
1. Yields better result and increases productivity
Any company or business with data or access to data is undoubtedly at
an advantage over other companies. Data can be processed in various
forms to obtain the information required by the company and help it make
good decisions. Using a data science process makes decisions and gives
business leaders confidence in those decisions because stats and details back
them. This gives a competitive advantage to the company and increases
productivity.
2. Report making is simplified
In almost all cases, data is used to collect values and make reports according
to those values. Once the data is appropriately processed and placed into the
framework, it can be easily accessed without any hassle with a click and
makes preparing reports a matter of just minutes.
3. Speedy, accurate, and more reliable
It is extremely important to ensure that data collection, facts, and figures are
done at a speedy pace and without any error. A data science process is
applied to data gives little to negligible chance of errors or mistakes. This
makes sure the process that comes after can be performed with more
accuracy. And the process provides better results. It is not uncommon that
several competitors have the same data. In this case, the company with the
most accurate and reliable data has an advantage.
4. Easy Storage and Distribution
When piles of data are being stored, the place needed to store it must also be
humongous. This gives rise to chances of missing or confusing information
or data. A data science process gives you extra room to store papers and
complex files and label the complete data through a computerized setup. This
decreases confusion and makes data easy to access and use. Having the data
stored in a digital form is another advantage of the data science process.
5. Cost reduction
Collecting and storing data using a data science process eliminates the need
to gather and analyze data over and over again. It also makes it convenient to
make copies of the stored data in digital form. Sending or transferring data
for research purposes becomes easy. This reduces the overall cost to the
company. It also encourages cost reduction by protecting the data which may
otherwise be lost in papers. Loss due to lack of certain data is also reduced by
following a data science process. Data helps make devised and confident
decisions which further leads to reduced costs.
6. Safe and secure
Having data stored through a data science process digitally makes
information much more secure. The value of data increases with time, which
has made data theft more common than before. Once the processing of data is
done, the data is secured by various software, which prevents any
unauthorized access and encrypts your data simultaneously.

Applications of Data Science:

o Image recognition and speech recognition:
Data science is currently using for Image and speech
 recognition. When you upload an image on Facebook and
start getting the suggestion to tag to your friends. This
automatic tagging suggestion uses image recognition
algorithm, which is part of data science.
When you say something using, "Ok Google, Siri, Cortana",
etc., and these devices respond as per voice control, so this is
possible with speech recognition algorithm.
o Gaming world:
In the gaming world, the use of Machine learning algorithms is
increasing day by day. EA Sports, Sony, Nintendo, are widely
using data science for enhancing user experience.
o Internet search:
When we want to search for something on the internet, then
we use different types of search engines such as Google,
Yahoo, Bing, Ask, etc. All these search engines use the data
science technology to make the search experience better, and
you can get a search result with a fraction of seconds.
o Transport:
Transport industries also using data science technology to
create self-driving cars. With self-driving cars, it will be easy to
reduce the number of road accidents.
o Healthcare:
In the healthcare sector, data science is providing lots of
benefits. Data science is being used for tumor detection, drug
discovery, medical image analysis, virtual medical bots, etc.
o Recommendation systems:
Most of the companies, such as Amazon, Netflix, Google Play,
etc., are using data science technology for making a better
user experience with personalized recommendations. Such as,
 when you search for something on Amazon, and you started
getting suggestions for similar products, so this is because of
data science technology.
o Risk detection:
Finance industries always had an issue of fraud and risk of
losses, but with the help of data science, this can be rescued.
Most of the finance companies are looking for the data
scientist to avoid risk and any type of losses with an increase
in customer satisfaction.

Advantages of Data
Science
1. Better Decision-Making – By analyzing data and identifying
patterns, data scientists can help businesses and
organizations make better-informed decisions that
are based on facts rather than assumptions or
intuition.
2. Improved Efficiency – Data science can also help
companies and organizations streamline their
operations by identifying inefficiencies and areas for
improvement. This can lead to cost savings and
improved productivity.
3. Enhanced Customer Experience – Data science can also be
used to understand customer behavior and
preferences, which can help businesses and
 organizations tailor their products and services to
better meet the needs of their target audience.
4. Predictive Analytics – Data science can also be used for
predictive analytics, which involves using data to
forecast future trends and outcomes. This can help
businesses and organizations plan and prepare for
the future.
5. Innovation and New Discoveries – Data science can also lead to
new discoveries and innovations by revealing
previously unknown relationships and insights in
data. This can lead to new products and services, as
well as new ways of thinking about the world. There
are many data science course that you can learn
from.

Disadvantages of Data
Science
1. Data Privacy Concerns – One of the biggest disadvantages
of data science is the risk of data privacy. When
data is collected and analyzed, it can potentially
reveal personal information about individuals. This
information can be used to harm people’s privacy
and security. Therefore, it’s essential to take
measures to protect the privacy of individuals when
working with data.
2. Bias in Data – Another disadvantage of data science is
the risk of bias in the data. Data can be biased due
to many factors, such as the selection of the data or
the way it is collected. This bias can lead to incorrect
conclusions and decisions based on the data.
3. Misinterpretation of Data – Data science involves complex
statistical analysis, which can sometimes lead to
misinterpretation of the data. The conclusions
drawn from the data may not be accurate, which
can result in poor decision-making and costly
mistakes.
4. Data Quality Issues – Data science depends on the quality
of the data used. If the data is not accurate,
complete, or consistent, it can lead to incorrect
results. This means that the data must be carefully
evaluated and cleaned before it can be used for
analysis.
5. Cost and Time – Data science can be time-consuming
and expensive. The process of collecting, cleaning,
analyzing, and visualizing data can take a lot of time
and resources. Additionally, data scientists often
require specialized tools and software, which can be
costly.

o
Emerging technologies in Data Science

As a developing field, data science has an enormous scope to grow

larger. The latest discoveries and trends have set it apart from major
professions in ways more than one. To understand the opportunities
this field holds, one must understand the emerging technologies in
data science that are shaping the future, and for the better.
 1. Artificial Intelligence

According to CMO, 47% of digitally mature organizations reported that

they have a defined AI strategy in place. Artificial Intelligence or AI has
been around for quite a long time. It has been used to make interaction
with technology and collecting customer data easier over the decades.
Due to its high processing speed and data access, it is now deeply
rooted in your routine lifestyle. From voice and language recognition,
such as Alexa and Siri, to predictive analytics and driverless cars,
artificial intelligence is growing at a fast rate by bringing innovation,
providing a competitive edge to businesses, and changing the way how
companies operate today.

2. Cloud Services
As humongous data is generated daily, it becomes a
challenge to find solutions for low-cost storage and cheap
power. This is where cloud computing and services come as a
savior. Cloud services aim at storing large amounts of data for
a low cost to efficiently tackle the issues encountered
regarding storage in data science.

3. AR/VR Systems

AR stands for Augmented Reality, whereas VR stands for Virtual

Reality. This technology has already caught the attention of individuals
and businesses all around the world. Augmented reality and virtual
reality aim at enhancing the interactions between humans and
machines. They automate data insights with the help of machine
learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP), which facilitates
data scientists and analysts in finding patterns and generating
shareable smart data. As reported by eMarketer, 42.9 million people
use VR, and 68.7 million people use AR at least once every month.

4. IoT
IoT refers to a network of various objects such as people or devices
that have unique IP addresses and an internet connection. These
objects are designed in such a way to communicate with each other
with the help of internet access. Sensors and smart meters, among
others, are a few boons of the IoT and data scientists intend to develop
this technology further to be able to use it in predictive analytics. As
per the report by Fortune Business Insights, the IoT devices market is
expected to reach $1.1 trillion by the year 2026.

5 . Big Data
Big Data refers to humongous amounts of data that may be either structured or
unstructured. These sets of data are too large to be quickly processed with the
help of traditional techniques, and hence advanced techniques need to be
employed for the same. Big Data boasts of technologies such as dark data
migration and strong cyber security, which would not have been possible without
it. Smart bots are also a result of processing big data to analyze the necessary
information. According to Big data made simple , around 90 percent of the world’s
data has been created in the past two years alone, rather than over a long period
of time.
Big Data is bound to change how businesses and customers look at and interact
with technology in their daily life.

5. Automated Machine Learning

Automated Machine Learning is also called AutoML and has now

become a buzzword. It is now being recognized as an aid to develop
better models for machine learning. According to Gartner, more than
40 percent of tasks in data science will be automated by the year 2020.
Automation of this data will make up for the absence of the necessary
talent supply, such as data engineers, researchers, and data scientists.
Companies such as Facebook have already incorporated Automated
Machine Learning.

AutoML or Automated Machine Learning aims at improving the

accuracy of prediction and make machine learning algorithms more
fine-tuned. This means that one can focus more on finding solutions to
complex problems rather than creating a workflow.
 6. Quantum Computing

Quantum computing is a trend that is still in its initial stages. Quantum

computers are expected to perform complex calculations in seconds.
Modern-day computers cannot solve these calculations in such a less
span of time and would probably require at least a hundred years.

Quantum computing involves storing a large chunk of information in

quantum bits or qubits, enabling them to solve complex calculations in
a matter of seconds. Large companies such as Google have already
begun researching this technology. However, it is not a feasible option
as of now. Quantum computing can be expected to take the spotlight
by the year 2022.

8. Digital Twins
The digital twin trend aims at creating replicas of physical elements in
the digital world. It is based on the concept that a physical object must
exist in the real world, and a virtual object must exist in the digital
world. This technology will make it easier for data scientists to
understand the pros and cons of a particular device or system before it
is put into actual use with the help of simulation.

For example, a digital twin of a new car of the jet would give a more in-
depth insight into the problems that could occur and how they can be
fixed before it is physically tested, thereby avoiding any harm.

The market for digital twins is expected to grow towards the end of the
year 2023, and will undoubtedly add value to businesses and the way
you view technology.
 Bottomline

Data science is set to take the world by storm and reach new
milestones as more and more companies are realizing how
important data is for their business growth and success. With
the help of technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and
quantum computing, the coming years are going to be
eventful for data scientists, businesses, and their customers
alike, as many discoveries and developments await. This
profession is not bound to see a decline anytime soon.
Moreover, it will change the way you interact with technology
and provide a competitive edge to the business that adopts it.
That can only mean one thing – enhanced business success
and higher customer satisfaction.
The key ML and data science challenges
facing firms today
As the adoption of big data, analytics, and emerging technologies like
AI and ML has increased on a scale that nobody — not even Bill
Gates himself — could honestly claim to have foreseen, so have the
challenges that face ML engineers and data scientists.
‍

1. Data collection
The first step of any ML or data science project is finding and
collecting necessary data assets. However, the availability of suitable
data is still one of the most common challenges that organizations and
data scientists face, and this directly impacts their ability to build
robust ML models. But what makes data so difficult to find in a world
where lots of it is readily available?
‍
The first problem is that organizations collect huge amounts of data
without doing anything to determine whether it’s useful or not. This
has been driven by a general fear of missing out on key insights
that could be gained from it, and the widespread availability of cheap
data storage. Unfortunately, all this does is clog up organizations with
lots of useless data that causes more harm than good.
‍
The second problem is the sheer abundance of data sources, which
makes it difficult to find the right data...

2. The abundance of data sources

Companies now collect data about their customers, sales, employees,
and more as a matter of course. They do this using lots of different
tools, software, and CRMs, and the sheer volume of data being fired
at companies by the many sources can start to cause problems when it
comes to data consolidation and management.
‍
As organizations continue to collect all the data that they can by using
the many available apps and tools, there will always be more data
sources that data scientists need to consolidate and assess to produce
meaningful decisions. This is where problems can begin to arise
because consolidating data from lots of disparate and semi-structured
sources is a complex process.
‍
To stay above the water and avoid being drowned by growing mounds
of data, organizations need a centralized platform that can integrate
with all their data sources so that they can instantly access structured,
organized, and meaningful information — this can potentially save
huge amounts of time and money.

3. Data security and privacy

When the right datasets have been found, the next challenge is
accessing them. But growing privacy concerns and compliance
requirements are making it harder for data scientists to access
datasets.
‍
Not only that, but the widespread transition to cloud environments
also means that cyberattacks have become a lot more common in
recent years. These have naturally led to tightened security and
regulatory requirements. As a result of these two factors, it’s now a
lot harder for data scientists and ML teams to access the datasets that
they need.
‍
In situations when organizations do provide interested parties with
access to their datasets, there’s the added challenge of ensuring
continued security and adherence to data protection regulations like
GDPR. A failure to do either of these things could lead to severe
financial penalties and stressful, expensive audits by regulatory
bodies.
‍
While many organizations are tightening their grip over their datasets
because of these factors, they alone shouldn’t preclude interested
parties from having access. With the right access management tools,
organizations can exercise more control over who can access data,
when they can access it, and what they can access.

4. Data preparation
The challenges don’t end with finding the right datasets and gaining
access, though. Real-life data is very messy, and this means that data
scientists and ML teams must spend a lot of time processing and
preparing data so that it’s consistent and structured enough to be
analyzed. This is time that would otherwise be spent on more
important tasks such as building meaningful models.
‍
While data preparation is a laborious task that is considered by many
to be the worst part of any ML project, it is a crucial process that
ensures ML models are built on high-quality data. This ultimately
leads to a more powerful model that’s more accurate at making
predictions. Fortunately, there are now many tools available on the
market that help ML teams pre-process their data by automating
certain aspects of the data cleansing process. This saves a huge
amount of time that ML teams can use to develop their models.

5. Managing large data volumes

As we’ve already mentioned, the volume of available data is growing
at a rapid pace each day. According to the IDC Digital Universe
report, the amount of data that’s stored in the world’s IT systems is
doubling every two years.
‍
It should therefore come as no surprise that handling these huge
amounts of data is a big challenge for organizations. This is
particularly true given that, as we have also mentioned, most of this
data is unstructured and is not organized into a traditional database.
‍
At the same time, critical business decisions need to be made
efficiently and effectively, and this necessitates putting a strong
infrastructure in place that is capable of processing data more quickly
and delivering real-time insights.
‍
To deal with the challenge of managing burgeoning data volumes,
organizations are more frequently turning to big data platforms to
process for storage, management, cleansing, and analytics so that they
can extract the insights that their organizations need, when they need
them.

6. Data discovery
You would have thought that by this point, data and ML teams would
be well on their way to building powerful ML models… right!?
‍
Well, this isn’t always the case. There’s still more work to be done,
and ML teams will often have questions like:
‍

 Why are there so many values missing?

 What does X or Y column name mean?
 Who can I ask about…?

‍
While these questions might sound straightforward, getting an answer
isn’t always the easiest thing to do. This is because organizations
often fail to take full ownership of their datasets, so finding the right
person who has the answer to your questions isn’t always a fruitful
endeavor.
‍
The solution to this problem is to thoroughly document datasets and
other data assets. It’s as simple as that. Thorough documentation
prevents basic questions from arising over and over again, which are a
drain on resources and do nothing but waste time.

7. Extracting the right insights

There’s not much point in processing, storing, and cleaning data if it’s
just going to sit there gathering dust. Organizations want to use their
data to achieve their goals, and the only way to do this is by extracting
relevant insights from it so that leaders can use it to make their
decisions.
‍
When it comes to extracting insights, however, organizations are
increasingly pushing for faster delivery and self-service reporting.
And to get this, they are turning to a new generation of analytics tools
and platforms that have the capacity to rapidly reduce the time it takes
to generate insights and deliver real-time, high-quality insights.

8. Finding the right talent

There’s a huge skills gap and talent shortage not only in data science
but also in the general tech sector. Organizations often struggle to find
the right people with the right level of knowledge and domain
expertise to put together their ML teams.
‍
In addition to finding talent with the right domain expertise,
organizations also struggle to find people who have the right business
perspective on data science. This is just as important as domain
expertise because a machine learning project can only be successful if
ML teams are able to solve key business problems and tell the right
story through data.
‍
When organizations do manage to put an ML team together, they
often experience problems in helping the team to function correctly.
This is because data scientists are often seen as the go-to people for…
well, everything to do with data. They’re asked to find it, clean it,
organize it, analyze it, and build models, among other things.
‍
Instead of asking all team members to take care of all these tasks,
however, distribute them among individual team members instead.
This helps to ensure efficiency and allows the team to function
effectively.

9. Identifying data lineage

Data lineage is the process of understanding, recording, and
visualizing data as it flows from data sources to consumption,
including all transformations it went along the way, what changed,
and why.
‍
Merely knowing the source of a dataset isn’t always enough to fully
understand it. Identifying data lineage can have a big impact in areas
including data migrations, data governance, and strategic reliance on
data, and enable organizations to:
‍

 Track errors in data processes

 Implement changes with lower risk
 See how datasets are used
 Solve problems in existing applications faster
 Create new applications more quickly

10. High entry barriers

It’s no secret that putting together your own internal ML teams,
managing your own projects, and building and deploying your own
ML tools is an expensive undertaking. The sheer expense of it all can
mean that even the bigger enterprise-level firms can struggle to
stomach the costs, especially when their projects aren’t delivering the
results they were hoping for.
‍
While many smaller and mid-level organizations may feel as if taking
advantage of data and ML for the benefit of their business is out of
reach due to this cost, this isn’t exactly true. Although smaller firms
will face significant barriers if they want to put together their own ML
teams — logistics, cost, expertise, etcetera — there are plenty of tools
and solutions on the market that allow organizations to fully
outsource their ML projects without risking the overall quality of ML
models.
‍
In most cases, the challenges that we have covered in this article mean
that outsourcing to a dedicated big data/ML engineering platform is
often a better idea that delivers better results.
Conclusion
We are living in the age of digitalization and big data. This has made
it necessary for companies to adapt themselves to the rapidly
changing market and develop data science-led solutions and strategies
that align with their goals and business needs.
‍
Adopting a data-led approach and deploying problem-busting ML
models is easier said than done, however. It is a highly involved task
that requires a lot of planning and careful exaction to do right, and
this involves facing and overcoming key challenges.
‍
While some organizations overcome these challenges alone, the
majority turn to full-service data and ML engineering platforms
like Qwak, that have the expert knowledge, infrastructure, and
capacity in place to help organizations unlock the true power of their
data without having to invest huge amounts of time or money.