What Exactly is Big Data?

You hear the term big data all the time in the industry world. Today, it is thrown around very loosely which is why there is much mystery surrounding the definition.

The phrase is big data, and the meaning is unclear. This is a phrase that has only appeared within the last two years; so it is fairly new and difficult to narrow down the meaning. I would even go so far as to say that big data is an umbrella for a plethora of meaning. Even I have used it very fluently in my blog posts. So I feel that a definition is in order.

To put it very simply, big data is massive amounts of data. It starts out just as one line or point of data but then is combined with many other points related/connected to that first point. Big Data happens over time with all this data being collected on a second by second basis. All this data continues to build into massive amounts. At this point, the data becomes too much for commonly used software applications.

Big Data leads to the demand for a software application that is capable for handling the data and interpreting the meaning of all that data. Many trending applications are available that make it simple to see past data and real time data, which is very useful for planning for the future.

One example of a company that uses big data is Walmart. Every hour Walmart handles more than 1 million transactions. The data from these transactions can become very useful if you want to track what is a ‘big seller item’ and what is not. This is one of the more extreme examples.

One of the smaller operations might be a drilling fleet or an oil rig. Both of these examples have many points of data that are tracked and all that data can be very useful if collected and analyzed.

To be honest, there is much more that goes into the definition of big data; much more terminology and detail that I didn’t include. But this is the simple version. If you want a more detailed answer, my advice is google it.