The Three Vs of Big Data

Big data is not about collecting heaps of data sets but about understanding ways to use them. The concept came in trend in the 2000s when industry analyst Doug Laney defined big data as the three Vs (Sas, no date). Volume, Velocity, and Variety is the three characteristics of big data that were designed to understand the nature of the data and how to efficiently apply them in businesses. 

       Source: https://blogs.sas.com/content/

VOLUME:  
Volume represents the size of data coming in from different sources all across the globe. A pool of data is flooding in every day with the increase in the usage of smartphone devices, IoT, social media and many more. Companies should be able to determine relevant information within this high volume of data and how to create value from it (Ntnu.edu, no date).

VELOCITY:

The second characteristic of big data is velocity and it describes the speed at which data is generating. The continuous flow of data is pouring in at an accelerating pace and Google alone receives 3.8 million search queries every minute. The challenges for companies are to comprehend ways to collect and make use of them (University of Wisconsin, no date). Data can be processed either in batches or in real-time and businesses should be aware of how to handle these data promptly (Sas.com, no date). 

VARIETY:
Variety is the type of data that comes in various forms. It can be structured, semi-structured and unstructured. Currently, around 80% of businesses have less knowledge of what’s happening across their unstructured data and struggling to manage it (Forbes, 2017). As a business “having the ability to selectively filter out details is required because details come in all shapes and sizes and their relative importance constantly shifts” (Needham 2013, p.15). 

Big data is imperative for every industry and if managed well, it can provide endless possibilities and help organisations to stay ahead of the game.

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References:

Sas (no date) 'Big Data: What it is and why it matters'. Available at: https://www.sas.com/en_ie/insights/big-data/what-is-big-data.html (Accessed: 31 January 2020)

Ntnu.edu (no date) 'What is Big Data'. Available at: https://www.ntnu.edu/ie/bigdata/what-is (Accessed: 31 January 2020)

Datasciencedegree.wisconsin.edu (no date) 'What is Big Data'. Available at: https://datasciencedegree.wisconsin.edu/data-science/what-is-big-data/ (Accessed: 2 February 2020)  

Forbes (2017) 'The Big (Unstructured) Data Problem'. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/06/05/the-big-unstructured-data-problem/ (Accessed: 25 January 2020)

Needham, J (2013). Disruptive Possibilities: How Big Data Changes Everything. 1st ed. CA: O'Reilly Media.