Abstract

Complex data analysis is a multi-billion dollar business. Major data analysis tool makers alone report revenues totaling over $4 billion per year: SAS Institute ($3.2 Billion), IBM SPSS ($0.3-1.0 Billion), MathWorks ($850 Million), Wolfram Research (at least $40 million), and a number of less well known smaller firms. Medical businesses, financial firms, and science and engineering organizations spend billions of dollars per year on these tools and the salaries of the analysts, scientists, and engineers performing the analyses. Complex data analysis increasingly determines the approval of new drugs and medical treatments, medical treatment decisions for individual patients, investment decisions for banks, pensions, and individuals, important public policy decisions, and the design and development of products from airplanes and cars to smart watches and children's toys.