Big Data Chapter Two

Velocity

Big Data Velocity is about the speed by which data streams into our own networks in real time coming from all possible sources including business processes, other networks, digitally connected machines, as well as the streaming data that is created every time people use their mobile devices, or each time they interact with social media sites, and the like. Reynolds, Vince. Big Data For Beginners: Understanding SMART Big Data, Data Mining & Data Analytics For improved Business Performance, Life Decisions & More! (Kindle Locations 371-372). . Kindle Edition.

What is structured data?

It refers to any data that is seamlessly contained in relational databases and spreadsheets. You can liken it to arranging data sets in neat little boxes. It involves having a tightly organized structure where the data set resides in a fixed field contained in a record or file. It is so well organized that that they are easily searchable by even the simplest search engine algorithm. Reynolds, Vince. Big Data For Beginners: Understanding SMART Big Data, Data Mining & Data Analytics For improved Business Performance, Life Decisions & More! (Kindle Locations 392-395). . Kindle Edition.

What is Unstructured Data?

It refers to data sets that are text-heavy and are not organized into specific fields. Because of this, traditional databases or data models have difficulty interpreting them. Examples of unstructured data include Metadata, photos and graphic images, webpages, PDF files, wikis and word processing documents, streaming instrument data, blog entries, videos, emails, Twitter tweets, and other social media posts. Reynolds, Vince. Big Data For Beginners: Understanding SMART Big Data, Data Mining & Data Analytics For improved Business Performance, Life Decisions & More! (Kindle Locations 403-404). . Kindle Edition.

Variety

The data sets that make up big data are varied and include both structured and unstructured data. Reynolds, Vince. Big Data For Beginners: Understanding SMART Big Data, Data Mining & Data Analytics For improved Business Performance, Life Decisions & More! (Kindle Locations 379-380). . Kindle Edition.

Big Data is not a single entity.

Big data is what allows businesses the ability to store, analyze, and exploit massive amounts of data with great ease and on real time to gain deeper market insights and create new value that will benefit the organization. Reynolds, Vince. Big Data For Beginners: Understanding SMART Big Data, Data Mining & Data Analytics For improved Business Performance, Life Decisions & More! (Kindle Locations 336-337). . Kindle Edition.

When does data become valuable?

Data becomes valuable only if it leads to the creation of significant business solutions. We need to create meaningful value from data before we can attach a monetary value to it. In other words, to have a more stable and sounder basis for big data valuation, we have to link the data's value to its potential role in supporting business decisions that produce positive results. Reynolds, Vince. Big Data For Beginners: Understanding SMART Big Data, Data Mining & Data Analytics For improved Business Performance, Life Decisions & More! (Kindle Locations 349-350). . Kindle Edition.

Big data is a mixture of:

Unstructured and multi-structured data which together compose the bulk of information contained therein. Reynolds, Vince. Big Data For Beginners: Understanding SMART Big Data, Data Mining & Data Analytics For improved Business Performance, Life Decisions & More! (Kindle Locations 380-381). . Kindle Edition.

There are actually 4 measurable characteristics of big data we can use to define and put measurable value to it.

Volume, Velocity, Variety, and Veracity. These characteristics are what IBM termed as the four V's of big data. Reynolds, Vince. Big Data For Beginners: Understanding SMART Big Data, Data Mining & Data Analytics For improved Business Performance, Life Decisions & More! (Kindle Location 355). . Kindle Edition.

Volume

When we talk about the volume of big data, we are talking about Zettabytes (1 Zettabyte = 1 sextillion bytes or 1 x 1021 bytes) of information possibly even Brontobytes (1 Brontobyte = 1 x 1027 bytes) in the near term.

Veracity based value

Big Data Veracity is the term that describes the process of eliminating any abnormality in the data being absorbed by any big data system. This includes biases, 'noise' or irrelevant data and those that are being mined which has nothing to do with the problem for which a solution is being sought. Reynolds, Vince. Big Data For Beginners: Understanding SMART Big Data, Data Mining & Data Analytics For improved Business Performance, Life Decisions & More! (Kindle Locations 406-407). . Kindle Edition.