need: $\rightarrow$ data needs to be rather seen as an asset $\rightarrow$ reveal meaningful info $\rightarrow$ need to gain value from data Formal def: (1) process of extracting useful insights from raw data (2) using an exploratory/data-driven approach (3) that shares similarities w/ data mining $\rightarrow$ process, uses algorithms to discover hidden pattens + valuable info from small / very large databases.