What is Data reduction?
The process by which an organization aims to reduce the quantity of data it stores is known as data reduction.
In order to more effectively retain huge volumes of originally obtained data as reduced data, data reduction methods aim to eliminate the redundancy present in the original data set.
It should be emphasized right away that “data reduction” does not always mean that information is lost. In many cases, data reduction simply indicates that data is now being kept more intelligently, sometimes after optimization and then being reassembled with related data in a more useful arrangement.
Furthermore, data deduplication the process of eliminating duplicate copies of the same data for the sake of streamlining is not the same as data reduction. More precisely, data reduction accomplishes its objectives by integrating elements of many distinct processes, including data consolidation and deduplication.
A more thorough analysis of the data
When discussing data in the context of data reduction, the often refer to it in its solitary form rather than the more common pluralized form. Determining the precise physical size of individual data points is one facet of data reduction, for instance.
Data-reduction initiatives entail a significant degree of data science. The capacity of a person of average intellect to comprehend a certain machine learning model is known as interpretability. This word was created since the content might be somewhat complicated and difficult to express succinctly.
Since this data is being seen from a near-microscopic viewpoint, it might be difficult to understand what some of these words signify. In data reduction, the often talk about data in its most “micro” meaning, although it typically describe data in its “macro” form. More precisely, the majority of conversations on this subject will need both macro-level and micro-level talks.
Advantages of data reduction
An business usually experiences significant financial benefits in the form of lower storage expenses due to using less storage space when it decreases the amount of data it is carrying.
Other benefits of data reduction techniques include improved data efficiency. Once data reduction is accomplished, the resultant data may be used more easily by artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in a number of ways, such as complex data analytics applications that can significantly simplify decision-making processes.
Successful usage of storage virtualization, for instance, helps to coordinate server and desktop environments, increasing their overall dependability and efficiency.
In data mining operations, data minimization initiatives are crucial. Before being mined and utilized for data analysis, data must be as clean and ready as feasible.
Types of data reduction
Some strategies that businesses might use to reduce data include the following.
Dimensionality reduction
This whole idea is based on the concept of data dimensionality. The quantity of characteristics (or features) attributed to a single dataset is known as its dimensionality. There is a trade-off involved, though, in that the more dimensionality a dataset has, the more storage it requires. Additionally, data tends to be sparser the greater the dimensionality, which makes outlier analysis more difficult.
By reducing the “noise” in the data and facilitating improved data visualization, dimensionality reduction combats that. The wavelet transform technique, which aids in picture compression by preserving the relative distance between objects at different resolution levels, is a perfect illustration of dimensionality reduction.
Another potential data transformation that may be used in combination with machine learning is feature extraction, which converts the original data into numerical features. A huge collection of variables is reduced into a smaller set while keeping the majority of the data from the large set. This is different from principle component analysis (PCA), another method of decreasing the dimensionality of large data sets.
Numerosity reduction
Choosing a smaller, less data-intensive format to describe data is the alternative approach. Numerosity reduction may be divided into two categories: parametric and non-parametric. Regression and other parametric techniques focus on model parameters rather than the actual data. In a similar vein, a log-linear model that emphasizes data subspaces may be used. On the other hand, non-parametric techniques (such as histograms, which illustrate the distribution of numerical data) do not depend on models in any manner.
Data cube aggregation
Data may be stored visually using data cubes. Because it refers to a huge, multidimensional cube made up of smaller, structured cuboids, the phrase “data cube” is really nearly deceiving in its supposed singularity.
With regard to measures and dimensions, each cuboid represents a portion of the entire data contained within that data cube. Therefore, data cube aggregation is the process of combining data into a multidimensional cube visual shape, which minimizes data size by providing it with a special container designed for that use.
Data discretization
Data discretization, which creates a linear collection of data values based on a specified set of intervals that each correspond to a given data value, is another technique used for data reduction.
Data compression
A variety of encoding techniques may be used to successfully compress data and restrict file size. Generally speaking, data compression methods are divided into two categories: lossless compression and lossy compression. With lossless compression, the whole original data may be recovered if necessary, while the data size is decreased using encoding methods and algorithms.
In contrast to lossless compression, lossy compression employs different techniques to compress data, and although the treated data may be valuable, it will not be an identical replica.
Data preprocessing
Prior to going through the data analysis and data reduction procedures, certain data must be cleansed, handled, and processed. The conversion of analog to digital data may be a component of that change. Another type of data preprocessing is binning, which uses median values to normalize different kinds of data and guarantee data integrity everywhere.
