What is Big Data? The Basics – Meaning and Usage

The term Big Data is being increasingly used almost everywhere on the planet – online and offline. And it is not related to computers only. It comes under a blanket term called Information Technology, which is now part of almost all other technologies and fields of studies and businesses. Big Data is not a big deal. The hype surrounding it is sure pretty big deal to confuse you. This article takes a look at what is Big Data. It also contains an example on how NetFlix used its data, or rather, Big Data, to better serve its clients’ needs.

What is Big Data

The data lying in the servers of your company was just data until yesterday – sorted and filed. Suddenly, the slang Big Data got popular and now the data in your company is Big Data. The term covers each and every piece of data your organization has stored till now. It includes data stored in clouds and even the URLs that you bookmarked. Your company might not have digitized all the data. You may not have structured all the data already. But then, all the digital, papers, structured and non-structured data with your company is now Big Data.
In short, all the data – whether or not categorized – present in your servers is collectively called BIG DATA. All this data can be used to get different results using different types of analysis. It is not necessary that that all analysis use all the data. Different analysis uses different parts of the BIG DATA to produce the results and predictions necessary.
Big Data is essentially the data that you analyze for results that you can use for predictions and for other uses. When using the term Big Data, suddenly your company or organization is working with top level Information technology to deduce different types of results using the same data that you stored intentionally or unintentionally over years.

How big is Big Data

Essentially, all the data combined is Big Data but many researchers agree that Big Data – as such – cannot be manipulated using normal spreadsheets and regular tools of database management. They need special analysis tools like Hadoop (we’ll study this in a separate post) so that all the data can be analyzed at one go (may include iterations of analysis).
Contrary to the above, though I am not an expert on the subject, I would say that data with any organization – big or small, organized or unorganized – is Big Data for that organization and that the organization may choose its own tools to analyze the data.