Analytics is the process of analysing data so that meaningful information can be discovered.
Typically analytics looks for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data.
Analytics is a broad reaching field that uses mathematics, statistics, predictive modelling, and machine learning techniques in the discovery of information.
The term analytics has grown in use due to the growth of structured and unstructured data and the realisation by businesses that this data can be used to improve things such as business process, serving customers, and in improving the ability to make decisions.
Popular analytic methods include descriptive statistics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics which aims to answer the question of what to do by providing information on optimal decisions based on the future predicted scenarios.
Prescriptive analytics relies on being able to tap into big data, contextual data, and the ability to use lots of compute power to produce answers in real time.
