What does BigData mean to a business organization? V5 Lens for navigating through BigData

BigData is another catchphrase which is getting a vast attention in both academic and industry forums. However, the question is whether it is just a buzzword or a real opportunity for business organisations. BigData term generally applies to the large size of the data. But, it is more than the large size. Organisations need to understand what does it really mean – a hype or reality? This blog post explains five BigData characteristics for business organisations to help them understanding the BigData characteristics and uncovering the embedded business opportunities.  

Figure 1: V5 Big Data Lens (Dr. Asif Q. Gill 2012)

1. Volume – This applies to the large size or volume of the data that cannot be managed via traditional means.

2. Variety – Large volume of data or BigData is more than the data size. It could also be in a number of different forms such as structured or un-structured, text, images, videos etc. It can come from a number of different sources, devices, or channels such as online, offline, social media, mobile, sensors, cameras, TV etc.

3. Velocity –This applies to the large volume of data that can come from a number of different sources at a high speed that cannot be managed via traditional means.

4. Variability – This applies to the state or validity of the data in relation to the time (e.g. right information at the right time for the effective decision making). How quickly a large volume of data, coming from a number of different sources at a high speed could change? This also refers to the data in motion (e.g. real-time streaming of data) or data at rest (e.g. stored in the database). The variability in the state of data comes into play when it is important to take a point-in-time snapshot of a data for further processing and decision making.

5. Value - This applies to the business value (e.g. opportunity cost) that is obtained through the handling of BigData such as the handling of un-structured large high speed data coming via social media streams or customer blogs.  

This post explained the BigData concepts through V5 lens. Organisations need to differentiate between low and high value BigData. There are number of technological solutions that can be further explored and evaluated for handling BigData such as Hadoop (e.g. HDFS and MapReduce), IBM InfoSpehre BigInsights, Apache Cassandra etc.