Data mining is an activity, which can be programmed, that involves the analysis of data and finally revealing the hidden patterns. Architects, Developers and Analysts are involved in the data mining process.
Data mining is usually carried out by an Analyst. However, it is not necessary that every time, he/she will be able to identify all the hidden patterns of a particular data set, irrespective of its size. Finally these identified patterns are converted into useful information for business purpose. A Developer combines data mining with application solutions, and an Architect understands the needs of the developer and the analyst and meets them accordingly.
Microsoft provides a wide range of data mining options, which includes collaborative solutions and ad hoc analysis (in MS Office Excel). A free plug-in is available in MS Office Excel 2007, which helps the analyst to analyze the data patterns. In addition to this plug-in, the Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) that is free with the SQL Server can also be used for data mining purpose.
It should be noted that data mining is not done on the basis of any known data patterns or any other additional information. The results obtained of data mining are generated from the data presented and not from any other resources. Microsoft data mining applies mathematical techniques on the available data set to obtain models. In addition to BDIS, the .NET framework and Data Mining extensions (DMX) language is also provided by Microsoft for custom solutions. At times, data mining is also known as machine learning.
Data Mining with SQL Server 2008(pdf)
RECENT COMMENTS