What is Big Data – Meaning, Applications, Advantages and 5 Vs of Big Data
By Varun Samarth
October 25, 2023
We live in a data-driven age where data is the new oil. With the world around
us changing rapidly and so much going on online, just imagine the amount of
data that is being generated every day. This huge chunk of data is known as big
data. Let us understand big data in detail in the following sections.
What is Big Data?
Big data refers to huge volumes of data. It is usually used by large
organizations for gleaning insights and improving business operations.
According to Gartner, “Big Data are high volume, high velocity, or high-
variety information assets that require new forms of processing to enable
enhanced decision making, insight discovery, and process optimization.
Big data is very useful when processed. However, it cannot be stored or
processed through any traditional storage or processing units, which is why
organizations take the help of data analysts and data scientists for analysing big
data. Continue reading to know about the different types of big data.
Different Types of Big Data
This section will help you understand three types of big data –
Structured
This type of data is structured and well-defined and is consistent enough to be
understood by a computer or a human. It is possible to store, analyse and
process structured data using a fixed format and has its own data model. This
kind of data is neatly stored in columns and rows. There are two sources of this
data: it could be machine-generated or human generated.
Unstructured
As the name suggests, this kind of data is not well-defined and is difficult to
handle, understand and analyse. There is no consistent format for unstructured
data and most data that we encounter every day falls under this category.
Semi-structured
This is partially structured data but does not obey any formal structures of data
models
Characteristics of Big Data
There are five basic characteristics of big data that we must be aware of –
Volume
This means the huge chunk of data that is collected and generated every second
in a big organization. There are different sources of this data including IoT
devices, social media, videos, financial transactions, and customer logs. While
earlier it was cumbersome to store and process high volumes of data, now there
are distributed systems such as Hadoop which are used to organize data.
Variety
The second characteristic of big data is its variety, including the different
sources and their nature. Over the years, the sources have changed and today,
data is present across different sources such as photos, audio files, videos, text
files, and PDFs. Variety is an important factor in storing and analysing data.
Velocity
Velocity refers to the speed at which data is created or generated. This will be
dependent on how fast the data will be processed. The reason is that the data
will be able to meet the demands of clients/users only after analysis and
processing. Every day, massive amounts of data are produced continuously and
only when this flow is continuous can there be a point in investing time or
effort on it.
Value
Value is the most important attribute of big data. No matter at what speed the
data is produced or in what volume, it can only be good enough if it adds value
to an organization. In Data Science, Raw data is first converted into
information by data scientists, the most useful data is retrieved, and then it is
analysed for patterns and insights.
Veracity
Value and veracity of big data are interconnected. Veracity refers to how much
data can be trusted.
Applications of Big Data
Big data is valuable and a powerful duel for all sectors today. It is used by
almost all organizations and has many use cases. Let us look at some
applications of big data.
Travel and tourism Big data helps in predicting requirements such as those for
travel facilities. Through this, the businesses have noticed significant
improvement.
Finance and banking This sector extensively uses big data to understand
customer behaviour through patterns and other trends.
Healthcare There has been a revolution in the healthcare sector, thanks to big
data. Through predictive analytics, healthcare personnel are able to provide
personalized services to patients, thereby improving outcomes.
Telecommunication and multimedia Given how much data is generated in this
sector daily, big data technologies are required to handle such huge data.
Advantages of Big Data
There are many advantages to big data. In this section, we have mentioned
some of them:
Big data aids in predictive analysis and can save organizations from
operational risks
Predictive analysis helps organizations improve business by
understanding their customer requirements.
Multimedia platforms are able to share data, thanks to big data
Patients can be kept under proper care and observation
It has changed the face of customer-based companies and the global
market
