Big data is a popular term used to describe a massive volume and availability of structured and unstructured data. Big data manages a large volume of data that could not be processed using traditional database and software tools. Business and society has given big data an equal importance to that of the Internet. The availability of vast data offers more accurate analyses. One can define the big data using the data’s volume, velocity and variety. Transaction-based data maintain through several years, unstructured data streaming over social media, collection of sensor and machine-to-machine contributes the volume of big data. Data streams in at various speeds that need to be dealt with in a timely fashion. Big data deals with variety of data in all types of formats such as numeric data, email, audio, video and financial transaction.
Petabytes and Exabytes are examples of big data that contains trillions of records of millions of individuals. These records are retrieved from different sources, including web, social media, mobile data, customer contact center, and so on. The data is generally loosely structured data that is incomplete and inaccessible.