Big Data is a phrase used to mean a massive volume of both structured and unstructured data that is so large it is difficult to process using traditional database and software techniques. In most enterprise scenarios the volume of data is too big or it moves too fast or it exceeds current processing capacity.

Types Of Big Data

  • BigData’ could be found in three forms:
  1. Structured
  2. Unstructured
  3. Semi-structured
  • Structured

Any data that can be stored, accessed and processed in the form of fixed-format is termed as a ‘structured’ data. Over the period of time, talent in computer science has achieved greater success in developing techniques for working with such kind of data (where the format is well known in advance) and also deriving value out of it. However, nowadays, we are foreseeing issues when the size of such data grows to a huge extent, typical sizes are being in the rage of multiple zettabytes.

Looking at these figures one can easily understand why the name Big Data is given and imagine the challenges involved in its storage and processing.

  • Examples:

An ‘Employee’ table in a database is an example of Structured Data.

  • Unstructured

Any data with the unknown form of the structure is classified as unstructured data. In addition to the size being huge, unstructured data poses multiple challenges in terms of its processing for deriving value out of it. A typical example of unstructured data is a heterogeneous data source containing a combination of simple text files, images, videos etc. Now day organizations have a wealth of data available with them but unfortunately, they don’t know how to derive value out of it since this data is in its raw form or unstructured format.

  • Examples:

The output returned by ‘Google Search’

  • Semi-structured

Semi-structured data can contain both forms of data. We can see semi-structured data as a structured in form but it is actually not defined with e.g. a table definition in relational DBMS. Example of semi-structured data is a data represented in an XML file.

  • Examples:

Personal data stored in an XML file

The Three Vs of Big Data

  • Volume

The amount of data matters. With big data, you’ll have to process high volumes of low-density, unstructured data. This can be data of unknown value, such as Twitter data feeds, clickstreams on a webpage or a mobile app, or sensor-enabled equipment. For some organizations, this might be tens of terabytes of data. For others, it may be hundreds of petabytes.

  • Velocity

Velocity is the fast rate at which data is received and (perhaps) acted on. Normally, the highest velocity of data streams directly into memory versus being written to disk. Some internet-enabled smart products operate in real-time or near real-time and will require real-time evaluation and action.

  • Variety

Variety refers to the many types of data that are available. Traditional data types were structured and fit neatly in a relational database. With the rise of big data, data comes in new unstructured data types. Unstructured and semi-structured data types, such as text, audio, and video, require additional preprocessing to derive meaning and support metadata.

How Big Data Works

Big data gives you new insights that open up new opportunities and business models. Getting started involves three key actions:

  • Integrate

Big data brings together data from many disparate sources and applications. Traditional data integration mechanisms, such as ETL (extract, transform, and load) generally aren’t up to the task. It requires new strategies and technologies to analyze big data sets at terabyte, or even petabyte, scale. During integration, you need to bring in the data, process it, and make sure it’s formatted and available in a form that your business analysts can get started with.

  • Manage

Big data requires storage. Your storage solution can be in the cloud, on-premises, or both. You can store your data in any form you want and bring your desired processing requirements and necessary process engines to those data sets on an on-demand basis. Many people choose their storage solution according to where their data is currently residing. The cloud is gradually gaining popularity because it supports your current compute requirements and enables you to spin up resources as needed.

  • Analyze

Your investment in big data pays off when you analyze and act on your data. Get new clarity with a visual analysis of your varied data sets. Explore the data further to make new discoveries. Share your findings with others. Build data models with machine learning and artificial intelligence. Put your data to work.

Benefits of Big Data Analytics:.

  • Businesses can utilize outside intelligence while taking decisions

Access to social data from search engines and sites like facebook, twitter are enabling organizations to fine-tune their business strategies.

  • Improved customer service.

Traditional customer feedback systems are getting replaced by new systems designed with Big Data technologies. In these new systems, Big Data and natural language processing technologies are being used to read and evaluate consumer responses.

  • Early identification of risk to the product/services, if any

  • Better operational efficiency

Big Data technologies can be used for creating a staging area or landing zone for new data before identifying what data should be moved to the data warehouse. In addition, such integration of Big Data technologies and data warehouse helps an organization to offload infrequently accessed data.

References

https://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/definition/big-data

https://www.sas.com/en_us/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html

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