1. A computer-based system for optimizing a data model having a parameter set comprising a plurality of parameters, the system comprising: a master computer system controlling an iterative optimization process for optimizing the parameter set of the data model; a plurality of worker computer systems communicatively coupled to the master computer system, wherein each worker computer system is assigned a respective subset of the parameter set, wherein each worker computer system is assigned a different portion of the parameter set from each other worker computer system, and no worker computer system is assigned the complete parameter set; wherein each of the plurality of worker computer systems is configured to: perform at least one sub-process of the iterative optimization process on a set of training data to determine updates for the values for the parameters in the parameter subset assigned to the worker computer system and to evaluate a closeness of fit of classifications generated by the data model to known outputs for the set of training data, and provide results of the evaluation of the closeness of fit to the master computer system; and wherein the master computer system is configured to utilize the results provided by each of the worker computer systems to evaluate the iterative optimization process by determining an overall closeness of fit of the data model to outputs for the set of training data.