Why is Big Data relevant

As i discussed in my last blog about the basics of big data, the question arises 'why and for whom is big data relevant?'.

Let me explain with an example. Say, a company want to understand the customer's acceptance of its product. If that company could analyze data coming from all the tweets, posts, like/dislike( on facebook ), feedbacks at various portals or other sources, it will provide a great insights and learning for the company.Well, if businesses can analyze big data it can provide valuable insights into the customer's sentiment about products. Now this is just an example of one application of big data.

Somebody has said 'More data usually beats better algorithms'.

So, if companies have the capacity to use all the data that is available to understand their customer's need better, that can be very profitable.

What is Big Data

Over the last couple of years the penetration of Internet has increased manifold in our lives. The explosion of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets have further increased our browsing time and the ability to be online on the go. Additionally, hardware prices are constantly becoming inexpensive. Because of the above three reasons, humans are generating more data than ever. This data is generated due to social networking, web browsing etc. We are generating data in the form of posts in social networking sites, downloading and uploading pictures, videos, audios, twitters, liking and disliking stuff, buying products online, search histories etc.

Other than human footprint, lots of data is generated by machines. Whether its a data generated by stock exchanges, machine logs, web servers logs etc.

There are 3 main features of big data: 3 Vs of big data

Volume

The data that is generated is of huge volume. Data that is generated to the tune of Petabytes.

Velocity

It specifies that the speed with which the data is generated. Its immensely quick. Just imagine how the web clickstream data would be generated. Web clickstream data is the one that is generated in response to every click you make while browsing.

Variety

It specifies the type or format of data. Its diverse. We are talking about data in the form of xml files, images, audios, videos, posts, twitters etc. So, data can be in unstructured, semi-structured and structured format.