What is ‘Big Data’?

Big data as the name indicates – a huge quantity of data. After the advent of the internet, we are involved in staggering the real-time data in huge quantities. As per the Berkeley researchers, we are generating the data around 5 quintillion bytes of data in a span of two days.
“Big data” refers to the variety of massive data that are usually unstructured or structured data, which are different from that of the traditional databases. The data from the internet are included in this big data. Social media data in real time is an example. These data will accumulate daily in huge amounts that cannot be stored as the normal database. There is an implication that the data is being analyzed for any purposes.

The data are mostly generated when making online purchases, social media participation, and all other real time accesses. Big data not only restricts with the data, but also includes the documents, photos, audio files, videos, social networking posts, mails, messages, phones, tweets, queries from search engines, and much more. In the present internet world, people are engaged in generating data every second without their knowledge through a single click on the website, mobile applications, and social media. The digital transformation had paved way for the accumulation of real time data daily. The development of internet operable devices such as point-of-sale systems, smartphones, fitness sensors, cameras, GPS devices, weather sensors, and other devices collect the data constantly with or without the presence of individuals. The devices generating and uploading data in the automated or manual way are termed “Internet of Things.”
Big data is defined in different terms and definitions. Anyhow, the Big data is characterized as the large sets of the data irrespective of the source and formats. Due to these unique characteristics, the Big data requires new methodologies for extraction, storage, processing, and analysis.