12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

What is Data Science?

Data Science is a detailed study of the flow of information from the colossal amounts of data present in an
organization’s repository. It involves obtaining meaningful insights from raw and unstructured data which
is processed through analytical, programming, and business skills. Let's get started with our 'What is Data
Science?' blog.

03rd Dec, 2019

15592 Views

8 comment(s)
(https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-
science/) (https://twitter.com/home?status=https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/)
(https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-
data-science/)

Importance of Data Science: The Current Scenario

In a world that is increasingly becoming a digital space, organizations deal with zettabytes and yottabytes
of structured and unstructured data every day. Evolving technologies have enabled cost savings and
smarter storage spaces to store critical data.

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 1/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

Watch Data Science 13 Hours+ Full Course For Beginners

Data Science for Beginners | Learn Data Science | Intellipaat

Currently, in the industry, there is a huge need for skilled and certified Data Scientists
(https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-a-data-scientist/). They are among the highest-paid professionals in
the IT industry. According to Forbes, ‘the best job in America is of a Data Scientist with an average annual
salary of $110,000’. Only a few people have the capability to process it and derive valuable insights out of
it.

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 2/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

Furthermore, looking at the huge and ever-increasing requirements, McKinsey has predicted that there
will be a 50 percent gap in the supply of Data Scientists versus its demand in the upcoming years. That’s
why in this blog we are talking about ‘What is Data Science (https://intellipaat.com/blog/most-wanted-
data-science-skills-for-2019/)?’

In recent years, there is a huge growth in the field of Internet of Things

(https://intellipaat.com/tutorial/amazon-web-services-aws-tutorial/internet-of-things/) (IoT), due to which 90
percent of the data has been generated in the current world. Every day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are
generated, and it is more accelerated with the growth of IoT. This data comes from all possible sources
such as:

Sensors used in shopping malls to gather shoppers’ information

Posts on social media platforms
Digital pictures and videos captured in our phones
Purchase transactions made through e-commerce

This data is known as big data (https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-big-data/).

Companies are flooded with colossal amounts of data. Thus, it is very important to know what to do with
this exploding data and how to utilize it.

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 3/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

It is here, the concept of Data Science comes into the picture. Data Science brings together a lot of skills
like statistics, mathematics, and business domain knowledge and helps an organization find ways to:

Reduce costs
Get into new markets
Tap on different demographics
Gauge the effectiveness of a marketing campaign
Launch a new product or service

Learn Data Science from experts, click here to more in this Data Science Training in New york
(https://intellipaat.com/data-scientist-course-training-new-york/)!

And the list is endless!

Therefore, regardless of the industry vertical, Data Science is likely to play a key role in your
organization’s success.

Look at the below infographic, and you will be able to understand how Data Science is creating its
impression:

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 4/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

How do top industry players use Data Science?

In this section of the ‘What is Data Science?’ blog, we will look at how top industry players like Google,
Amazon, and Visa are using Data Science. IT organizations need to address their complex and
expanding data environments in order to identify new value sources, exploit opportunities, and grow or
optimize themselves, efficiently. Here, the deciding factor for an organization is ‘what value they extract
from their data repository using analytics and how well they present it’. Below, we list some of the biggest
and best companies that are hiring Data Scientists at top-notch salaries.

Google is by far the biggest company that is on a hiring spree for trained Data Scientists. Since Google is
mostly driven by Data Science, Artificial Intelligence (https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-artificial-
intelligence/), and Machine Learning these days, it offers one of the best Data Science salaries to its
employees.

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 5/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

Amazon is a global e-commerce and cloud computing (https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-cloud-

computing/) giant that is hiring Data Scientists on a big scale. They need Data Scientists to find out
customer mindset and enhance the geographical reach of both e-commerce and cloud domains, among
other business-driven goals.

An online financial gateway for most companies, Visa does transactions worth hundreds and millions in a
single day. Due to this, the need for Data Scientists is huge at Visa to generate more revenue, check
fraudulent transactions, and customize products and services as per customer requirements, etc.

(https://intellipaat.com/big-data-hadoop-training/?utm_source=blog-apache-hadoop-
yarn&utm_medium=Blog_Page&utm_campaign=May-big-data-hadoop-training%2F)

Data Science Life Cycle

For a better understanding of ‘What is Data Science?’, let’s explore its life cycle. Suppose, Mr. X is the
owner of a retail store and his goal is to improve the sales of his store by identifying the drivers of sales.
To accomplish the goal, he needs to answer the following questions:

Which are the most profitable products in the store?

How are the in-store promotions working?

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 6/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

Are the product placements effectively deployed?

His primary aim is to answer these questions which would surely influence the outcome of the project.
Hence, he appoints you as a Data Scientist. Let’s solve this problem using the Data Science life cycle.

Data Discovery
The first phase in the Data Science life cycle is data discovery for any Data Science problem. It includes
ways to discover data from various sources which could be in an unstructured format like videos or
images or in a structured format like in text files, or it could be from relational database systems.
Organizations are also peeping into customer social media data, and the like, to understand customer
mindset better.

In this stage, as a Data Scientist, our objective would be to boost the sales of Mr. X’s retail store. Here,
factors affecting the sales could be:

Store location
Staff
Working hours
Promotions
Product placement
Product pricing
Competitors’ location and promotions, and so on

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 7/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

Keeping these factors in mind, we would develop clarity on the data and procure this data for our analysis.
At the end of this stage, we would collect all data that pertain to the elements listed above.

Data Preparation
Once the data discovery phase is completed, the next stage is data preparation. It includes converting
disparate data into a common format in order to work with it seamlessly. This process involves collecting
clean data subsets and inserting suitable defaults, and it can also involve more complex methods like
identifying missing values by modeling, and so on. Once the data cleaning is done, the next step is to
integrate and create a conclusion from the dataset for analysis. This involves the integration of data which
includes merging two or more tables of the same objects, but storing different information, or
summarizing fields in a table using aggregation. Here, we would also try to explore and understand what
patterns and values our datasets have.

Data Scientist vs Data Analyst vs Data Engineer | Intellipaat

Mathematical Models
Do you know, all Data Science projects have certain mathematical models driving them. These models
are planned and built by the Data Scientists in order to suit the specific need of the business organization.
This might involve various areas of the mathematical domain including statistics, logistic and linear

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 8/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

regression, differential and integral calculus, etc. Various tools and apparatus used in this regard could be
R statistical computing tools, Python programming language (https://intellipaat.com/blog/tutorial/python-
tutorial/what-is-python/), SAS advanced analytical tools (https://intellipaat.com/blog/tutorial/sas-
tutorial/introduction-to-sas/), SQL (https://intellipaat.com/blog/tutorial/sql-tutorial/introduction-to-sql/), and
various data visualization tools like Tableau (https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-tableau/) and QlikView
(https://intellipaat.com/blog/tutorial/qlikview-tutorial/introduction/).

Also, to generate a satisfactory result, one model might not be enough. We need to use two or more
models. In this scenario, a Data scientist will create a group of models. After measuring the models,
he/she will revise the parameters and fine-tune them for the next modeling run. This process will continue
until the Data Scientist is pretty sure that he/she has found the best model.

Become Master of Data Science by going through this online Data Science course in Toronto
(https://intellipaat.com/data-scientist-course-training-toronto/).

In this stage, as a Data Scientist, you will build mathematical models based on the business needs of Mr.
X, i.e., based on if product A or product B is the most profitable in the store, whether the product
placements are effectively working in the store, etc.

(https://intellipaat.com/big-data-data-science-training/?utm_source=blog-apache-hadoop-
yarn&utm_medium=Blog_Page&utm_campaign=May-big-data-data-science-training%2F)

Getting Things in Action

Once the data is prepared and the models are built, it is time to get these models working in order to
achieve the desired results. There might be various discrepancies and a lot of troubleshooting that might
be needed, and thus the model might have to be tweaked. Here, model evaluation explains the
performance of the model.

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 9/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

Interested in learning Data Science? Click here to learn more in this Data Science Training in
Sydney (https://intellipaat.com/data-scientist-course-training-sydney/)!

In this stage, you as a Data Scientist will gather information and derive outcomes based on the business
requirements of Mr. X.

Communication
Communicating the findings is the last but not the least step in a Data Science endeavor. In this stage, the
Data Scientist needs to be a liaison between various teams and should be able to seamlessly
communicate his findings to key stakeholders and decision-makers in the organization so that actions can
be taken based on the recommendations of the Data Scientist.

In our example, based on the findings, you will communicate and recommend certain changes in the
business strategy so that Mr. X can earn the maximum profit.

If you have any doubts or queries related to Data Science, do post on Data Science Community
(https://intellipaat.com/community/data-science).

Data Science Components

Now, in this ‘What is Data Science?’ blog, we will discuss some of the key components of Data Science,
which are:

Data (and Its Various Types)

The raw dataset is the foundation of Data Science, and it can be of various types like structured data
(mostly in a tabular form) and unstructured data (images, videos, emails, PDF files, etc.)

Programming (Python and R)

Data management and analysis is done by computer programming. In Data Science, two programming
languages are most popular: Python and R.

Statistics and Probability

Data is manipulated to extract information out of it. The mathematical foundation of Data Science is
statistics and probability. Without having a clear knowledge of statistics and probability, there is a high
possibility of misinterpreting data and reaching at incorrect conclusions. That’s the reason why statistics
and probability play a crucial role in Data Science.

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 10/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

Machine Learning

As a Data Scientist, every day, you will be using Machine Learning algorithms such as regression and
classification methods. It is very important for a Data Scientist to know Machine learning
(https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-machine-learning/) as a part of their job so that they can predict
valuable insights from available data.

Big Data

In the current world, raw data is compared with crude oil, and the way we extract refined oil from the
crude oil, by applying Data Science, we can extract different kinds of information from raw data. Different
tools used by Data Scientists to process big data are Java, Hadoop (https://intellipaat.com/blog/hadoop-
certification/), R, Pig, Apache Spark (https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-apache-spark/), etc.

Grab high-paying analytics jobs with the help of these Top Data Science Interview Questions
(https://intellipaat.com/interview-question/data-science-interview-questions/)!

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 11/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

(https://intellipaat.com/all-courses/big-data/?utm_source=Blog-All-Courses&utm_medium=Blog-
Page&utm_campaign=May-Blog%2Fall-courses%2Fbig-data%2F)

How does Intellipaat help you in making a career in Data Science?

Now, you can answer the question ‘What is Data Science?’ and know that Data Science is not all about
money. It also allows you to gain immense knowledge throughout your career. So, it is this heady mix of
money and deep domain knowledge that makes Data Science such an enviable career option for budding
technology professionals.

Intellipaat provides huge opportunities to the aspirants who are willing to establish themselves as all-
rounders in this area. Hence, getting trained in Data Science (https://intellipaat.com/data-science-
architect-masters-program-training/) technologies through courses offered by Intellipaat will be the best
career move you will ever make. Intellipaat offers a wide range of courses dedicated to providing you an
end-to-end knowledge about the trending and highly in-demand Data Science skills
(https://intellipaat.com/blog/most-wanted-data-science-skills-for-2019/) in this domain.

It was not joking when Harvard Business Review reported that Data Science is the hottest job opportunity
of the twenty-first century. Today, if any digitally driven organization is starved of data even for a short
duration of time, then it loses its competitive edge. Data Scientists help organizations make sense of their
customers, markets, and the business as a whole.

If you want to become a Google Data Scientist at the best salary, then you need to be at the top of your
game. If you are wondering how to learn Data Science, then Intellipaat is just the right place to start with
your incredible Data Science journey.

Check out this Intellipaat Data Science and Machine Learning Full Course video:

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 12/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

Data Science & Machine Learning for Non Programmers | Data Science for Beginne…
Beginne…

Check out Intellipaat’s Data Scientist Online Course (https://intellipaat.com/data-scientist-course-

training/) to get ahead in your career!

Related Articles
Rising Demand for SMAC Skills in IT Firms (https://intellipaat.com/blog/rising-demand-for-smac-skills-in-it-
firms/)

Risk Management in Testing (https://intellipaat.com/blog/risk-management-in-testing/)

QlikView: Another Thrilling Tool for Rewarding Business Intelligence (https://intellipaat.com/blog/qlikview-

another-thrilling-tool-for-rewarding-business-intelligence/)

PREVIOUS
(HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WHAT-IS-MAPREDUCE/)

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 13/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

(HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WHAT-IS-MONGODB/)
(HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WHAT-IS-MAPREDUCE/)
NEXT
(HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WHAT-IS-MONGODB/)

(https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/)

(https://twitter.com/home?status=https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/)
(https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/)

Data Science (https://intellipaat.com/blog/category/data-science/)

8 thoughts on “What is Data Science?”

DECEMBER 7, 2016 AT 4:02 AM (HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WHAT-IS-DATA-SCIENCE/#COMMENT-7005) EDIT

(HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WP-ADMIN/COMMENT.PHP?ACTION=EDITCOMMENT&C=7005)
I am Data scientist from past three years… “Data Science” is performs research and analysis on data and
helps companies to improve business by predicting growth, trends and business insights based on huge
anmol
says: amounts of data

Reply

APRIL 21, 2017 AT 7:15 PM (HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WHAT-IS-DATA-SCIENCE/#COMMENT-7056)

EDIT (HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WP-ADMIN/COMMENT.PHP?ACTION=EDITCOMMENT&C=7056)
Hi Anmol, can I knw more about Data science and Data analytics? As I am thinking to do a
course, can u plz suggest me?
Rajashree …
says: Reply

Pingback: Compare Big Data, Data Science and Data Analytics - Intellipaat Blog (https://intellipaat.com/blog/compare-
big-data-data-science-data-analytics/) Edit (https://intellipaat.com/blog/wp-admin/comment.php?
action=editcomment&c=7093)

Pingback: SAS Versus R - Intellipaat Blog (https://intellipaat.com/blog/sas-versus-r/) Edit (https://intellipaat.com/blog/wp-

admin/comment.php?action=editcomment&c=7426)

OCTOBER 22, 2019 AT 4:50 PM (HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WHAT-IS-DATA-SCIENCE/#COMMENT-12715) EDIT

kumarmon… (HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WP-ADMIN/COMMENT.PHP?ACTION=EDITCOMMENT&C=12715)

says: It’s a great post. It’s such a wonderful read on Training. Keep sharing such kind of worthy information.

Reply

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 14/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

OCTOBER 23, 2019 AT 4:16 PM (HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WHAT-IS-DATA-SCIENCE/#COMMENT-12730) EDIT

kumarmon… (HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WP-ADMIN/COMMENT.PHP?ACTION=EDITCOMMENT&C=12730)

says: It’s a great post. It’s such a wonderful read on Training. Keep sharing such kind of worthy information. It’s
a great moment today proffesonals in this field.

Reply

NOVEMBER 7, 2019 AT 11:22 AM (HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WHAT-IS-DATA-SCIENCE/#COMMENT-12826) EDIT

(HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WP-ADMIN/COMMENT.PHP?ACTION=EDITCOMMENT&C=12826)
Awesome post…….it is just very simple and easily to read & understand .
malikaa Reply
says:

NOVEMBER 14, 2019 AT 10:25 AM (HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WHAT-IS-DATA-SCIENCE/#COMMENT-12866) EDIT

(HTTPS://INTELLIPAAT.COM/BLOG/WP-ADMIN/COMMENT.PHP?ACTION=EDITCOMMENT&C=12866)
Very effective post.

Sanjana Reply
says:

Leave a Reply

Logged in as manoj intellipaat (https://intellipaat.com/blog/wp-admin/profile.php). Log out?

(https://intellipaat.com/blog/wp-login.php?
action=logout&redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fintellipaat.com%2Fblog%2Fwhat-is-data-
science%2F&_wpnonce=1095221f7f)

Solve : *

3 + 17 =

Comment

POST COMMENT

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 15/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

Post Associated Articles

SAS Versus R (https://intellipaat.com/blog/sas-versus-r/)

Read More (https://intellipaat.com/blog/sas-versus-r/)

Hadoop’s Processor is Rising the Speed of Big Data Technologies (https://intellipaat.com/blog/hadoop-processor-rising-

speed-of-big-data-technologies/)
Read More (https://intellipaat.com/blog/hadoop-processor-rising-speed-of-big-data-technologies/)

PYTHON TOOLKIT (https://intellipaat.com/blog/python-toolkit/)

Read More (https://intellipaat.com/blog/python-toolkit/)

Recommended Course

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 16/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

(https://intellipaat.com/data-science-architect-masters-program-training/)

COURSES

Hadoop Training (https://intellipaat.com/big-data-hadoop-training/)

Tableau Training (https://intellipaat.com/tableau-training/)

Data Science Course (https://intellipaat.com/data-scientist-course-training/)

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 17/18
12/3/2019 What is Data Science - Introduction to Data Science

Python Certification (https://intellipaat.com/python-certification-training-online/)

Devops Training (https://intellipaat.com/devops-certification-training/)

COURSES

AWS Training (https://intellipaat.com/aws-certification-training-online/)

Salesforce Training (https://intellipaat.com/salesforce-training/)

Selenium Training (https://intellipaat.com/selenium-training/)

Blockchain Certification (https://intellipaat.com/blockchain-training-course/)

Big Data Course (https://intellipaat.com/all-courses/big-data/)

TUTORIALS

Python Tutorial (https://intellipaat.com/blog/tutorial/python-tutorial/)

AWS Tutorial (https://intellipaat.com/blog/tutorial/amazon-web-services-aws-tutorial/)

Devops Tutorial (https://intellipaat.com/blog/tutorial/devops-tutorial/)

Tableau Tutorial (https://intellipaat.com/blog/tutorial/tableau-tutorial/)

Blockchain Tutorial (https://intellipaat.com/blog/tutorial/blockchain-tutorial/)

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Python Interview Questions (https://intellipaat.com/blog/interview-question/python-interview-questions/)

AWS Interview Questions (https://intellipaat.com/blog/interview-question/amazon-aws-interview-questions/)

Data Science Interview Questions (https://intellipaat.com/blog/interview-question/data-science-interview-questions/)

Devops Interview Questions (https://intellipaat.com/blog/interview-question/devops-interview-questions/)

Salesforce Interview Questions (https://intellipaat.com/blog/interview-question/salesforce-interview-questions/)

© Copyright 2011-2019 intellipaat.com. All Rights Reserved.

https://intellipaat.com/blog/what-is-data-science/ 18/18