#BigData

Big data is a term that describes the larger volume of data, both structured and unstructured, that floods a business on a day-to-day basis. Overall the concept of big data is generally new but the job of storing and measuring large amounts of information has been around forever. When it comes to Big data, the concept is composed into 3 main subcategories.

The first subcategory is volume. In this subcategory organizations collect data from a variety of sources, including business transactions, social media, and information from sensors. (or machine to machine data) In the past storing these large amounts of data would have been next to impossible, but with the evolution of technology and creating a platform to measure and store this data it now no longer such a hard task to successfully perform.

The next two subcategories essentially go hand in hand because of their relevance toward each other. First off velocity which is when data streams in at an unprecedented speed and must be dealt with in a timely manner. For example RFID (sensors and or smart metering) tags in places like malls and grocery stores are driving the need to deal with torrents of data in near real time. The third subcategory that deals with velocity is variety. This is where data comes in all types of formats, from structured numeric data in traditional databases to unstructured text documents, email, video, audio, stock ticker financial transactions.