You might have heard the term “big data” being thrown around a lot more in the last several years. If you aren’t familiar with it, then you’re likely wondering what big data means. Data is a massive industry in the modern era, and big data refers to particularly large and complex sets of data. The information that can be gleaned from big data has the potential to help you operate your business in new ways, but it isn’t easy to process it with standard software.
It becomes easier to understand what big data entails by breaking it down into three categories. As you read about what makes big data unique, it will become easier to understand what sets it apart from traditional data. Big data has become such a massive part of the business world, and the amount of information that is available to people has really changed things substantially.
The Volume
The volume of the data is the first thing that sets big data apart. Big data refers to vast amounts of unprocessed data that is collected from various sources. How large big data is will depend on each company that is collecting data. Smaller companies might have several terabytes worth of data to process, and larger companies might even have several petabytes of data.
The Variety
Big data has greater variety than your everyday data that people process all the time. This data is going to be both unstructured and semi-structured. You will be able to get many data types such as audio, video, and text to sort through. Much of this data is going to require preprocessing so that you will be able to obtain meaningful information from it.
The Velocity
Finally, big data will also be received at a very high rate, and this can be tough to keep up with. Big data comes in fast, and it has the potential to allow companies to act on the data that they are receiving swiftly. Specific Internet-enabled devices might even provide real-time data that companies can use. Most companies are going to need a solution so that they can react to the data that they are receiving in real-time.