Data Mining and Predictive Analysis

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Predictive Analytics

In their Worldwide End-User Business Analytics Forecast, IDC, a global provider of market intelligence, divided the market and distinguished between “core” and “predictive” analytics.¹ Core analytics are described as those tools that “analyze a current or past state,” generally focusing on descriptive statistics, query, and reporting. Predictive analytics, on the other hand, “are used to determine the probable future outcome of an event or the likelihood of a current state where it is unknown.” These tools incorporate more sophisticated analytical strategies, and include data mining and modeling.

By using data mining, we can begin to characterize and describe trends and patterns that reside in data and information. While ...