Big Data - What's the Big Deal?


Big data is one of the popular buzzwords in business today across most industries if not all. Even though the term was originated in the 1990s (Lohr, 2013), it gained more traction in the early 2000s among the tech community with the advent of digital storage systems. As mobile broadband and social media networks took off in the early 2010s, Big data was getting recognised as a marketing tool and in 2012, it was a featured topic in the World Economic Forum, thus entering the mainstream.

For a casual observer, Big Data might seem like just large volumes of data and rightfully so. But the most crucial aspect of Big Data is that it is fundamentally networked and the relationality between varied sets of data. (Boyd and Crawford, 2017).

While there are many characteristics attributed to Big Data, they are often defined using the 3V’s
  1. Volume – This denotes not only the breadth of the data but also the depth of data collected which essentially covers every interaction of user across the various touchpoints.
  2. Velocity – This denotes the speed at which data needs to be collected, processed and analysed and possibly actioned upon, which is often expected to be closer to real-time as much as possible.
  3. Variation – This denotes the wide variety of data formats collected across the various touchpoints, web clicks, customer orders, emails, video views, social media shares etc.       
         There are more V’s being added such a Veracity (ibmbigdatahub, 2016), Variability(SAS Insights, 2019), Value etc.

Big Data has already opened a plethora of opportunities not just across industries but also across functions as well. Big Data can help in every function, process, layer of any organisation. (IBM Big Data & Analytics Hub, 2014)
Source: ibmbigdatahub.com

 Big Data is not a buzzword, but the new reality through businesses are transforming themselves by tuning their decision making by leveraging their data every step of the way.

References:
  • boyd,  danah and Crawford, K. (2017) Six Provocations for Big Data. preprint. Open Science Framework. doi: 10.31219/osf.io/nrjhn.
  • IBM Big Data & Analytics Hub (2014) Big data and analytics: Transforming potential into action, IBM Big Data & Analytics Hub. Available at: https://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/infographic/big-data-and-analytics-transforming-potential-action (Accessed: 22 January 2020).
  • ibmbigdatahub (2016) Extracting business value from the 4 V's of big data, IBM Big Data & Analytics Hub. Available at: https://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/infographic/extracting-business-value-4-vs-big-data (Accessed: 22 January 2020).
  • Lohr, S. (2013) ‘The Origins of “Big Data”: An Etymological Detective Story’, Bits Blog, 1 February. Available at: https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/the-origins-of-big-data-an-etymological-detective-story/ (Accessed: 21 January 2020).
  • SAS Insights (2019) Big Data: What it is and why it matters, SAS.Com. Available at: https://www.sas.com/en_ie/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html (Accessed: 22 January 2020).


Comments

  1. Elina23 January 2020 at 21:48

    Hello, MJ! Thanks for your research for us. Clear and to the point. I like how you structure your post. Keep going!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Siva24 January 2020 at 06:42

    Good information.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MJ24 January 2020 at 21:10

      Thanks Siva! Means a lot coming from a Data Specialist like you!!

      Delete
  3. Arjun Negi24 January 2020 at 08:49

    Great job covering the history, definition, and application of big data. Having an infographic makes so much sense!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shubham Mehta24 January 2020 at 12:34

    Quick read and informative

    ReplyDelete
  5. (ADI)GIT_blog26 January 2020 at 16:20

    MJ, Thank you for sharing this. I also agree, there is a huge importance of Big data for business strategies and CRM than causal observer think so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MJ27 January 2020 at 15:17

      Thanks Adi!. Your are absolutely right

      Delete
  6. Manikandan Dhanapal26 January 2020 at 19:58

    Hi MJ,
    You have covered basic thing that's required for a person to understand about "Big Data" who's not aware of the term/technology "Big Data".Also references you made is awesome and i can say it's not so easy to draft a blog simple like this before you gain knowledge on it, believe you have very good knowledge on "Big Data".

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sam DBS26 January 2020 at 20:17

    Very Informative article on Big Data

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sedcan Altundal27 January 2020 at 15:23

    To the point and clear definition. Thank you MJ.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dylan O'Regan29 January 2020 at 15:12

    Great first post MJ. Nice and informative with an appealing layout

    ReplyDelete

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