Big Data: An Introduction
Big data is high-volume, velocity and variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making. This was a definition specified by Gartner Inc in 2001 and is still relevant to this day. In simple terms, big data is larger, more complex and voluminous data sets, especially from new data sources. These large volumes of data can be used to address business problems, that would have been addressable prior. Big data cannot be processed using traditional methods, and therefore relies upon the use of sophisticated and specific information to help optimise the information. The concept of big data has gained momentum since the early 2000’s when industry analyst Doug Laney introduced the definitions of the “3 V’s” of big data. These are as follow: Volume: This relates to the amount of data matter. Businesses collect data from a wide range of sources includ...