What Is Big Data?
search data management, Thursday, March 21st, 2024
Big data is a combination of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data that organizations collect, analyze and mine for information and insights. It's used in machine learning projects, predictive modeling and other advanced analytics applications.
Systems that process and store big data have become a common component of data management architectures in organizations. They're combined with tools that support big data analytics uses. Big data is often characterized by the three V's:
- The large volume of data in many environments.
- The wide variety of data types frequently stored in big data systems.
- The high velocity at which the data is generated, collected and processed.
Doug Lany first identified these three V's of big data in 2001 when he was an analyst at consulting firm Meta Group Inc. Gartner popularized them after it acquired Meta Group in 2005. More recently, several other V's have been added to different descriptions of big data, including veracity, value and variability.