Big Data & The Cloud

Firstly, let’s begin with Big Data. What is “Big Data?” This term is widely referred to as massive and more complexed structured and unstructured data.

Most traditional software platforms are unable to manage big data due to its large volume and unstructured nature. Big data contains variety, volume and velocity which are known as the 3 V’s.

The (3) V’s of Big Data

Variety - This is referred to as the different types of data which are generated by humans and machines, mostly structured and unstructured data. Structured data is comprised of multimedia like pictures, videos, tweets, etc. Unstructured data, on the other hand can be categorized as emails, audio, texts.

Volume – This is referred to as the amount of data that is being processed. It’s basically generated by websites, mobile apps, connected devices like IP cameras etc. The larger your business, the larger your data output.

Velocity- This is referred to as the speed in which the data is being generated. With big data, it allows the data to travel and process at a high speed without any interruptions.

Big Data and The Cloud

Having a general understanding of what Big Data is, you can now see how Cloud storage and Big Data go hand in hand. Big data generates large amounts of data while Cloud storage has the capacity to store this data based on the level of infrastructure.

Increased Revenue

This combination is being used by businesses today. Firstly they gather, process, store and analyze the data for e.g. trends on social media and consumer purchases then use this information as a way to increase their revenue by creating a new approach to problems the organization may have.

Increased Productivity

This combination also helps to increase productivity in the workplace as it allows businesses to focus on more important aspects/ major projects that take place in the organization.

Depending on the type and how large the business is, it’s almost impossible to store 100’s of terabytes of Big Data on the organization’s servers. Therefore, the storing of Big Data in the cloud is crucial, as there won’t be a need to invest in an on-site data center. The processing is much faster, it’s scalable and it also has the ability to produce real time analysis.