What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the phrase “data and analytics”? For me, it’s numbers. Numbers being crunched, twisted, and spit out by a large mainframe computer in a heavily air-conditioned room.

What did you think about?

As APQC kicks off its data and analytics research initiative this year, I have come to realize that both data and analytics involve much more than just numbers; they bring with them a whole new lexicon of repurposed words and phrases. If you had tried explaining the difference between a “data lake” and a “data warehouse” to someone 100 years ago—he or she probably would have told you get in your “horseless carriage” and get out of town. That’s why we at APQC put together a glossary to help you make sense of all the terminology. I hope you’ll find it useful in making sense of the conversations taking place throughout the business world (and beyond) about this exciting chapter in the Information Age. I can tell you from personal experience that it helped me start to get my head out of the clouds and into “the cloud.”

Download a PDF of the infographic here.

Follow me on Twitter @MSIMS_APQC or find me on LinkedIn.

Stay up to date with our upcoming analytics research, webinars, and more by visiting our expertise page.