The concept of Big Data is quite new, but people have stored data since the inventions of computer. Large Datasets came into existence in the 1960s and 70s when the first data centres were setup and development of Relational Databases started. In 2005, huge data was being generated because people started to be more active on Facebook, YouTube and other online services. Hadoop was developed the same year. NoSQL started gaining popularity. The concept of Big Data can often be explained using the 4 V’s: volume, variety, velocity, and veracity. The primary characteristics of Big Data is the huge volume of data. It is not specific to any quantity of data but is often used to describe data in terabytes, petabytes, or exabytes. Data might be in its raw form or pre-processed. The data might be processed using various data mining tools or data preparation software before analysis. IoT and Machine Learning have produced way more data than it was expected. Cloud computing has also expanded the big data possibilities. Cloud provides elastic scalability where developers simple spin up ad hoc clusters to test subsets of Data. Big Data contributes to a wide variety of datatypes, structured in SQL databases, unstructured and semi-structured. Unstructured data is kept in Hadoop cluster or NoSQL system.
Characteristics of Big Data
There are some specific characteristics that classify data as “Big Data”. They can be summarised as:
Importance of Big Data
Big data helps us analyse cost reductions, time reductions and product developments. The relationships and patterns received from the huge amount of data help us to make smarter decisions. Big Data can also be used to accomplish various business-related tasks such as:
Big Data can help to determine root cause of failures, issues and defects in real time.Using Big Data, we might generate coupons on point of sale based on customer’s buying habits to increase product demand.Big Data might help us in recalculating entire risk portfolios in minutes.This also helps to detect fraudulent behaviour before any organization is affected.
Applications of Big Data
Big Data can be used in a variety of fields such as Banking, Education, Governmental, HealthCare, Manufacturing, and Retail. The analysis of the Big Data can help us take risky decisions at the peak hour. It can be used to predict some probable results from the analysis of the data that could be useful for business. Big data Analysis can be used to make or change some protocols or procedures. We hope that now you have an idea about ‘How big is Big Data?’ Please contact us, if you have any query.
