Big Data is a very popular buzzword in the Information Technology world today. You may be asking yourself, what is Big Data? Who is using it? Most importantly, how does Big Data affect me?
Big Data is…well, big. How big? It depends on what information you are storing, how often you access it, and how quickly you need it. It can be anywhere from gigabytes to exabytes (1,000,000 terabytes).
Big Data Attributes
Big Data is variable and complex. It is not suitable for classic database management tools and does not fit into normalized data sets. Storage, search, sharing, analysis, and visualization are some difficulties posed by Big Data. The trend of moving to larger data sets is due to the additional information that can be derived from it compared to smaller sets. In addition to the massive amounts of raw storage, Big Data requires parallel processing, a dedicated hardware solution, and subject matter experts. As you can see, creating an exact definition for Big Data is difficult, given its nature.
Use of Big Data
Big Data is used in a wide variety of industries. One that we are all familiar with is internet search indexing. Big Data is what allows Google and other search engines to analyze your search, and return relevant information as fast (or faster) than you can type your request. Try doing that with an SQL database! Other well-known big data users are social networking sites (Facebook, Google+), scientific research (Large Hadron Collider), and the human genome project.
What does Big Data mean to us?
Now the interesting part, what does Big Data mean to you and me? As data sets continue to grow, new methods of aggregating and interpreting it become necessary. Big Data is diverse and can be hosted in many Data Centers around the world. It can be accessed through your hosting provider. Once you have access to it you can engage with an analytical services provider to analyze it and correlate it to other data sets.
Big Data is here now, and here to stay. Don’t get left behind.
