What is Data and information? What’s the Difference? Why it Matters 1

We live in a digital world defined and shaped by software. So not without mentioning the importance of the terms data and information . In this world, large amounts of data are constantly being created, collected, stored and analyzed through software. Data in the digital universe; It consists of a variety of sources, consisting of individuals, organizations that use information technology, and various “smart” electronic devices connected to the Internet.

1. The Growth of the Digital Universe

Along with the volumes of data and information that companies use for business activities, their importance continues to increase greatly. A lot of information is generated and used due to individuals’ web searches, email uses, content uploads and downloads, and sharing media files.

The most remarkable contribution to the growth of the digital universe is the introduction of social networksand smartphones and tablets into our lives.

What is Data?

A general description of the data is a collection of factual crumbs, typically collected for analysis or reference purposes. Data can be found in a variety of forms, such as facts held in a person’s mind, photographs and drawings, alphanumeric text and images in a book, a bank notebook, and tabulated results of a scientific research. However, data are now generally treated as a singular or aggregated name that represents the aggregation of facts and figures. This is especially true when referring to digital data.

On a computer, digital data is a collection of crumbs that are transmitted and stored in electronic form and processed by software. Digital data is generated by a variety of devices such as desktop computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and electronic sensors. They are stored as arrays of binary values (0s and 1s) on a storage medium that is inside or outside the devices that generate or access the data. Storage devices can be of different types, such as HDD, CD or SSD storage devices. Examples of digital data include electronic documents, text files, emails, e-books, digital images, digital audio, and digital video.

What is Information?

The terms “data” and “information” are closely related, and it is common for the two to be used interchangeably. However, it is important to understand the difference between the two. Data, by itself, is a compilation of crumbs that need to be processed in order to be useful. For example, it is the data of an organization’s annual sales figures.

When data is processed and presented in a specific context, it can be interpreted in a useful way. This processed and organized data is called information. For example, when annual sales data is processed in a sales report, it provides useful information, such as the average sales of a product (which shows product demand and popularity) and how to shape it to be used to compare actual sales to projected sales. Data thus creates information and facilitates decision-making.

As discussed earlier, processing and analyzing data is vital for any organization. It enables organizations to extract value from data and generate intelligence to enable decision-making and organizational effectiveness.

Structured data is easier to process due to its organized form. On the other hand, processing unstructured data and extracting information from it using traditional applications is difficult, time-consuming, and requires significant resources. New architectures, technologies, and techniques have emerged that enable us to store, manage, analyze, and extract value from unstructured data from a multitude of sources, but since these technologies are beyond the pursuit of this article, we will share these new technologies with you in other articles.

What is IoT? Why Use It?

The development that has a significant impact on the growth of the digital universe is small smart devices called IoT. There may be those who ask what is IoT. Simply put, they can be called electronic “smart” devices with software and sensors. These devices provide us with great convenience in our lives by exchanging data with other devices over the internet. Wearable devices (smart wristwatches and fitness event trackers), electronic sensors, temperature sensors, and tools such as heart monitoring implants and thermostats are examples of this technology.

IoT has a wide range of applications and is leading the development of many innovative technology solutions. Some areas of application include weather monitoring (remote monitoring and analysis of temperature and atmospheric conditions), healthcare (health monitoring devices can enable doctors to remotely monitor patients and be notified in case of emergencies), and infrastructure management ( technicians can remotely monitor equipment and proactively plan repair activities for maintenance teams).

The growth of the digital universe, which continues in this way, has made the protection and storage of information more important. We will be discussing this issue in the continuation of our article.

2. Information Security and Management

Organizations have become more dependent on information in the 21st century. Data and information have always had to be accessible, no matter when and wherever. For organizations and business operations to function as they should, personnel and applications need to have access to information continuously, quickly, reliably and securely.

If I have to give examples of such organizations and processes, banking and financial institutions, government offices, online shopping sites, airline reservations, bill payments, social networks, stock trading, scientific research and health services can be considered.

It has become inevitable for organizations to store, protect, process and manage information efficiently and cost-effectively. Doing this work involves much more difficult processes than it seems. Laws and contracts for the storage and protection of data are one of the reasons that require more careful storage and management of information.

The fact that companies want to extract value from the information generated in the digital universe causes them to face new challenges. Knowledge is used to transform and develop existing businesses and gain a competitive advantage. For example, an online shopping site analyzes search, browsing, and purchasing data to learn about preferred product types and customer brands. Then the business will make an inventory of popular products using a sufficient number of information and announce the relevant products to existing and potential customers.

To meet all these requirements and more, organizations are making various attempts to ensure information security.

3. What is Digital Data and Information? What’s the Difference Between Data and Information?

The terms data and information are closely related. For this reason, it is common for the two to be used synonymously with each other. However, I think it’s important to understand the difference between Data and Information . Data, by itself, is a collection of “facts” that must be processed in order to be useful.

For example, it is the data of an organization’s annual sales figures. Data can be interpreted in a useful way when it is processed in a certain way. This collection of processed and organized data is called “information”. For example, when annual sales data is processed in a sales report, useful information can be obtained by comparing the average sales and actual sales of a product with projected sales. Data thus creates information and enables decision-making. So we got an idea of the difference between data and information.

On a computer, digital data is a collection of facts transmitted and stored in electronic form, processed by software. Digital data is generated by a variety of devices such as desktop computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and electronic sensors.

Data is stored in storage environments under a binary number system (0s and 1s). Storage devices can be of different types.

Examples of digital data include;

• electronic documents,
• text files,
• emails,
• e-books,
• digital images,
• digital audio and digital video

can be shown.

The Importance of Information

As we have already discussed, the processing and analysis of data is vital for any organization. Through valuable insights from data, organizations generate intelligence to strengthen their decision-making and corporate effectiveness. They will have to be open to new technologies to ensure the security and management of this data.

In this article, I tried to answer the questions of what is data and information? why is their security important?

It is also highly recommended that you take a look at my article on Server Types about the servers where the data is kept.