Large data sets are referred to as big data. They are typically used by large organizations to gain insights and enhance business operations. According to Gartner, Big Data are high-volume, high-velocity, or high-variety information assets that need new processing techniques to improve decision-making, uncover new insights, and optimize processes.
Big data processing has advantages. However, because big data cannot be processed or stored using any conventional processing or storage units, businesses employ data scientists and analysts to examine large amounts of data. To find out more about the various kinds of big data, keep reading.
Big Data Types
You will learn about three different kinds of big data in this section –
Structured
Both computers and humans can understand this kind of data because it is sufficiently defined, consistent, and well-structured. It has its data model and can be processed, analyzed, and stored in a fixed format. This type of data is arranged in rows and columns for neat storage. This data comes from two sources: machine-generated and human-generated.
Unstructured
As the name suggests, unstructured data needs to be more well-defined and is challenging to handle, understand, and analyze. Unstructured data does not have a standard format, and the majority of the data we deal with on a daily basis is in this category.
Semi-structured
Although this data is partially structured, it does not follow any formal data model structures.
Characteristics of Big Data
There are five essential characteristics of big data that we must be aware of –
Volume
This indicates that enormous amounts of data are generated and gathered every second in a large organization. This data comes from various sources, such as financial transactions, social media, videos, IoT devices, and customer logs. Large amounts of data were difficult to process and store in the past, but distributed systems like Hadoop now make data organization easier.
Variety
The second important aspect of big data is its diversity, which encompasses the variety of sources and their attributes. Over time, the sources have changed, and data is now available in many different formats, such as text documents, PDFs, audio files, videos, and images. Variety is essential when it comes to data analysis and storage.
Velocity
The rate at which data is produced or generated is referred to as velocity. The speed at which the data is processed will determine this. The rationale is that only after analysis and processing can the data satisfy the needs of clients or users. Massive volumes of data are continuously generated every day; only then can time or effort be justified in this ongoing flow of data.
Value
The most important feature of big data is value. No matter how quickly or in large quantities the data is generated, it can only be considered adequate if it benefits an organization. In data science, the most valuable data is retrieved, processed by data scientists into information, and then examined for trends and insights.
Authenticity
Considerable data integrity and value are intertwined. Data integrity is the degree to which it can be relied upon.