Smart Data is digital information that is formatted so it can be acted upon the collection point before being sent to a downstream analytics platform for further data consolidation and analysis. James Kobielus, IBM’s Big Data evangelist and keynote speaker at the 2016 DATAVERSITY® Smart Data Online Conference stated:

“It is a strategy that sets the ground work for smart decisions, rather than a particular type of  data … The ability to achieve insights from trusted, contextualized, relevant, cognitive, predictive, and consumable data at any scale, great or small.”

 Other Definitions of Smart Data Include:

• Services that provide conditioned and calculated data, with analytical rules and calculations to derive further insight from the collected data and aid the decision-making process. (Susan Moore, Gartner)
• An evolution of the “Big Data” idea marrying massive data sets, data processing advancements, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. (William Plummer, O’ Reilly)
• The “subset of … data that will actually apply to … [a] … problem—that can be used intelligently in a way … towards a solution.” (Anthony Scriffignano, TechRepublic)
• Guidance and sophisticated precision data tools to understand the how, where, and why of a problem. (Clifton Leaf, Forbes)
• “Those parts of Big Data that are relevant for analytics … resulting [in] refined Data Sets.” (Knowledge@Wharton, University of Pennsylvania)

Businesses use Smart Data to:

• Make better predictions.
• Drive Machine Learning and Data Discovery.
• Optimize data faster.
• Act in real time, taking advantage of business outcomes.
• To work more efficiently, e.g. at the operational level.

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