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Big data: What is it and what is it for?

Surely more than once you have heard about Big Data, but do you know what it is about? According to the website Power Data “It's a term that describes the sheer volume of data, both structured and unstructured, that floods businesses every day. But it is not the amount of data that is important. What matters with Big Data is what organizations do with the data. Big Data can be analyzed for insights that lead to better decisions and strategic business moves. "

Origins of Big Data

The concept of Big Data came into use in the 2000s. It was industry analyst Doug Laney who articulated the definition of what is known as Big Data today. To do this, he used the three V reference, which are:

Volume: Refers to all the sources through which data can be collected. For example: commercial transactions, smart devices, industrial equipment, videos, social networks, among others.

Speed: As we move into this era, data is coming faster and faster. It requires a way to be able to process them better and almost in real time.

Variety: This is another characteristic of the data, which can be very varied. There are numerical data, unstructured text documents, emails, audios, videos, images, financial transactions and many other types more.

To these three Vs, two more can be added: Variability and Veracity. The first concerns how unpredictable the data is and how it can change often. The second has to do with the quality of the data and the source from which it comes: whether it is reliable or not.

Why is Big Data important?

The main reason for use, which answers the question "what is Big Data for?" It is to be able to organize the data, analyze it and thus obtain answers to various dilemmas. For example, Big Data can help reduce costs in a company, reduce development times, develop new products, optimize offers, make decisions, among others.

Big Data is used today to know the origin of failures, problems and defects, calculate risk portfolios, detect fraud in an organization, etc. Better products and services can also be developed by learning more about customers and how to meet their needs.

Examples of uses of Big Data

Power Data offers some examples on its website about the use of Big Data in today's world:

Health sector: Big Data allows you to properly manage patient records, insurance information, health plans and others. So much information full of thousands of details can be difficult to handle, but Big Data solves this problem by providing organization and data analysis that in this sector allows to provide diagnoses and treatment options quickly.

Tourism: In the tourism area, Big Data makes it possible to measure customer satisfaction. Some companies that use it are resorts and casinos to provide the best possible service to people, identify problems and apply relevant analysis.

Advertising: Through Big Data it is possible to create more efficient ads and get new prospects.

Retail: Buyers today want companies to understand what they need and when they need it and in order to achieve this they must know how to handle customer data. Big Data helps to analyze what they want and to meet their demands in a timely manner.

Challenges of Big Data

Some of the challenges that Big Data faces today are related to the great variety of data that there is, as we mentioned earlier. The sources are also very varied, such as mobile, desktop, internet, collected data, experimental, etc.

Added to this, the volume is increasing and time is required to collect, clean, organize and process the data. They are changing and also there are no quality standards.

“In 1987 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published the ISO 9000 standards to guarantee the quality of products and services. However, the study of data quality standards did not begin until the 1990s, and it was not until 2011 that ISO published the ISO 8000 data quality standards, ”you can read on the Power Data website.

Also, data quality research is relatively new and there are not many results yet.

At The Cloud Group we understand the importance of Big Data and how this can help your business develop and grow. If you want more information on this topic, we invite you to read more at our web. You can also go through our Blog where you can enjoy diverse content of interest. What do you think of Big Data in the world today?