what is 'Big Data' and outline its three basic characteristics

Question 1

what is big data?

Answer 1

extremely large and complex datasets that cannot be easily managed or analyzed using traditional data processing techniques

Question 2

what are the data sets of ‘Big Data’ characterised by?

Answer 2

• volume
• velocity
• variety

Question 3

what does big data involve? (Volume)

Answer 3

vast amounts of data, often ranging from terabytes to petabytes and beyond.

Question 4

what can this abundance of data come from? (volume)

Answer 4

from various sources such as social media interactions, sensors, transaction records and multimedia content e.g Facebook generates petabytes of data each day

Question 5

what does the big data that is generated and collected at high speeds require? (velocity)

Answer 5

real-time or near-real-time processing and analysis

Question 6

what does the velocity aspect refer to? (velocity)

Answer 6

the rapid rate at which data is produced, streamed, or transmitted

Question 7

what does big data encompass? (variety)

Answer 7

diverse types of data, including structured, semi-structured and unstructured data.

Question 8

what does structured data follow? (variety)

Answer 8

a predefined format and is typically stored in databases

Question 9

what does semi-structured data may have? (variety)

Answer 9

some organizational properties but lacks a strict schema

Question 10

what does unstructured data lack?

Answer 10

a predefined data model and includes text documents, images, audio, and video files