What Are Data Systems?

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Data systems transform raw data into valuable information for numerous industries and applications. They encompass all the technologies that are involved in collecting data, processing it, storing it, and sending it. They include software, hardware, storage, networks, switching and interconnection devices and mechanisms. Data systems also include middleware software, which allows various operating systems and administrative systems communicate with one another.

For example, the CDC’s Pandemic-Ready Data Modernization Initiative aims to improve the data systems of local and state health departments to better respond to public health emergencies like COVID-19. This initiative is an essential part of President Biden’s plan to prepare for another pandemic. Colleges are essential to this effort because they play an important role in defining and testing the fundamental elements of a data system.

Essentially, any organized collection of symbols and their manipulating operations could be regarded as data systems. One example is the analysis of human speech at the phoneme level, or an Incan artifact, known as the khipu. Another is a saved image as pixels.

A satellite in space produces an incessant flow of data that needs to be stored, processed and sent back to Earth. This data handling onboard is a computer but not the kind we use on our desktops. Spacecraft onboard data systems have been specifically designed and constructed to meet the unique requirements of space. Space radiation can rapidly damage microprocessors that aren’t protected. The onboard data handling systems must handle telecommands sent to the spacecraft for control purposes and collect housekeeping telemetry that is required to downlink to Earth.