What is Big Data?

Big data was first mentioned in 1997 in a paper by NASA scientists - Michael Cox and David Ellsworth - who state that the visualisation of some scientific problems (specifically fluid and gas dynamics) poses significant challenges to computer systems (Guess, 2012). This primarily means an increased need for storage of vast amounts of input data both in RAM and on hard disks, which is simply characterised as the problem of big data.

The Guardian (2016), highlighted that debate over Big Data has grown quite a bit in the last few years. Everybody is talking about the benefits and drawbacks of the big data revolution. Even the businesses are interested in collecting valuable data, employees are facing the challenges of using them effectively. According to Techrepublic (2020), a study showed that 25% of respondents said they feel free to use collected data, 37% think their decisions are influenced by analysing data, and 74% feel overwhelmed when working with data at all.

But, what is really a Big data?

Oracle defines Big data as ‘data that contains greater variety arriving in increasing volumes and with ever-higher velocity. This is known as the three Vs. In every day's situation, whenever a search engine automatically completes term that user is typing or an online bookstore suggests a title that they think the user might like, it's related to Big Data solutions. New technologies have made it easy to collect data from smartphones and desktops and that data can be collected from different places, by visiting different sites, joining groups, commenting on social networks and websites, downloading and using applications, through different questionnaires, registering and buying products on sites (Segal, 2019).

IBM states that this collected data enables analysts, researchers and business users to make better and faster decisions using data that was previously unknown and unused. Businesses now have the opportunity to take advantage of advanced analytics techniques such as machine learning, predictive analytics, data mining and wide range of statistics to take a bigger market share, get more customers to meet their expectations.

Source:www.crossing-technologies.com

References:

Guess, A. R. (2012) Big Data: A History. Available at: https://www.dataversity.net/big-data-a-history/# (Accessed: 25 January 2020).

IBM 'What is Big Data Analytics'. Available at: https://www.ibm.com/analytics/hadoop/big-data-analytics?mhsrc=ibmsearch_a&mhq=what%20is%20big%20data (Accessed: 24 January 2020).

Oracle (no date). What Is Big Data? Available at: https://www.oracle.com/big-data/guide/what-is-big-data.html#link7 (Accessed: 25 January 2020).

Segal, T. (2019) 'The Deal With Big Data'. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/big-data.asp (Accessed: 24 January 2020).

The Guardian (2016) The big data explosion sets us profound challenges - how can we keep up? Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2016/jul/02/the-big-data-explosion-sets-us-unprecedented-challenges-how-can-we-keep-up (Accessed: 24 January 2020).

Vigliarolo, B. (2020) Businesses understand the value of big data, but employees aren't being trained to use it - TechRepublic, Available at: https://www.techrepublic.com/google-amp/article/businesses-understand-the-value-of-big-data-but-employees-arent-being-trained-to-use-it/?fbclid=IwAR2BXh62eNj4gAMVQWk82Uv_8GAYzEzag3Kv-N5OKBzqrVlSzUAFchDDa44 (Accessed: 25 January 2020).