For a while now we’ve been hearing about “Big Data” and its effects on analytics. But before we can begin to use Big Data, we need to take a moment and make sure we understand what Big Data is.
A more technical explanation of Big Data is, “the substantial quantities of data being transmitted through digital interactions.” Big Data can also be described as the combination of three elements, the 3Vs:
Volume – the amount of data received.
Velocity – the speed at which data is received.
Variety – the type of data received.
Simply put, Big Data is a large amount of data that comes at you fast, from different sources, and in different formats. Naturally, this can make Big Data hard to manage. But, fortunately, companies like IBM have developed ways of helping businesses analyze Big Data. (To learn more about that, visit IBM’s Analytics page.)
So next time you hear someone talking about “Big Data,” remember what they’re talking about is essentially a large amount of information coming quickly from different sources. Basically, that’s it.
