Big Data is a term that is always evolving. In its most basic definition, it refers to the large amount of structured, semi-structured and unstructured data which have the potential to be mined for information.
Big Data is characterised by three elements: the vast volume of data, the variety of data types and the velocity at which data should be processed. This is often referred to as the 3Vs. Big Data can come from a number of different sources, such as business sale records. Big Data can be either in its raw format or pre-processed by an independent software tool before analytics are run.
A multitude of large organisations will need to collect and analyse Big Data within their businesses; they will, therefore, need computing systems that can process the information quickly and efficiently. IT professionals who work within large organisations in consultancy roles will be aware of and will use Big Data to perform analytics on the business.
