Data

Every business has sensitive information and protecting that information is a crucial business concern.
Now, let's talk a little bit about the difference between data and information.
Data are the raw facts that are systems and processes generate and collect on a regular basis.
For example, we might put a thermometer in our factory to monitor a piece of sensitive equipment.
That thermometer might record a temperature reading every 10 minutes to determine the temperature inside.
The end result will be a spreadsheet or database table containing all of the temperature recordings.
Each of these temperature readings is one fact.
And all of this is data.

Information

Now, information is data that has been processed and analyzed.
A system or a person has put some effort into putting that data in the context of the business, so let it can be useful to us.
But look, what happens if we create a plot showing how the temperature of this equipment changes over time.

Looking at this chart, we can quickly see that the temperature in this machinery spikes to dangerously high levels every afternoon around 2:00 p.m. That's information that we can act upon.

First, we capture and collect data that might have meaning to our business, whether that's temperature
Once we have that data, we can correlate it performing analysis to help find the meaningful information
And with that information in hand, we can provide reports to business leaders helping them make data driven business decisions.