Big data

With the influx of cheap devices—such as Internet of Things devices and hand-held devices—the amount of data that is being generated and captured has increased exponentially. Almost every organization has a great deal of data and they are ready to purchase more if needed. When large quantities of data arrive in multiple different formats and on an ever-increasing basis, then we can say we are dealing with big data. In short, there are three key characteristics of big data:

• Volume: By volume, we mean the quantity of data both in terms of size (in GB, TB, and PB, for instance) and in terms of the number of records (as in a million rows in a hierarchical data store, 100,000 images, half a billion JSON documents, and so on).
• Velocity: Velocity refers to the speed at which data arrives or is ingested. If data does not change frequently or new data does not arrive frequently, the velocity of data is said to be low, while if there are frequent updates and...