What is Big Data ?

Big data is data that exceeds the processing capacity of conventional database systems.

The value of big data to an organization falls into two categories: analytical use and enabling new product.

What Does Big Data Look Like?

Input data to big data systems could be chatter from social networks, web server logs, traffic flow sensors, sattellite imagery, broadcast audio streams, banking transactions, MP3s of rock music, the content of web pages, scans of goverments, GPS trails, telemetru from automobiles, financial market data, the list goes on.

To clarify matters, the three V's of Volume, Velocity and Variety are commonly used to characterize different aspects of big data.

Volume

The benifit gained from the ability to process large amount of information is the main attraction of big data analytics.

Many companies already have large amount of archived data, perhaps in the form of logs, but not the capacity to process it.

Velocity

It's not just the velocity of the incoming data that's the issue: it's possible to stream fast-moving data into bulk storage for later batch processing.

Variety

Rarely does data present itself in a form perfectly ordered and ready for processing. A common theme in big data systems is that the source data is diverse, and doesn't fall into neat relational structures. It could be text from social networks, image data, a raw feed directly from a sensor source. None of these things come ready for integration into an application.