What is Big Data?

 "Data is information that can be interpreted and used by computers. It is a collection of facts, such as numbers, words, measurements, observations or even just descriptions of things. In computing, data is typically stored electronically in the form of files or databases. Data can come from many sources including user input (typed words or images), sensors (temperature readings.) or algorithms (calculations)." (1)

In today's modern world this data is being generated at such a scale and rate that it can no longer be processed by traditional data management tools. This is what is known as Big Data. It is estimated that 90% of the worlds data was created in the last two years alone with current trends estimating the amount of data created in 2025 will be 181 zettabytes. (2)

These massive amounts of data being created can be categorised in three ways:

Structured - This kind of data is highly organised, easily searchable, and is easily processed by Big Data technology in databases such as MySQL, PostegreSQL, Oracle etc. Databases holding large volumes of customer data, financial transactions, point-of-sale data would be examples of structured Big Data.

Unstructured - This kind of data is unorganised and highly diverse making it difficult to easily search, categorise and manage. This kind of data requires complex AI technology to manage. Social media post and comments, sensor data, web pages, and even this blog post would be examples of unstructured data.

Semi-structured - This kind of data does not fit I to standard database structures but contains some form of organisational data such as tags or metadata that makes it more manageable than unstructured data. Webpages with metadata, log files, emails with structured headings such as sender recipient etc. would be examples of semi-structured data 


1. https://www.lenovo.com/gb/en/glossary/data/#:~:text=Data%20is%20information%20that%20can,)%20or%20algorithms%20(calculations).

2. https://explodingtopics.com/blog/data-generated-per-day

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