![\"Big](\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/data-lakes-header.jpeg\" "\\"Data")
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“What is Cloud Storage?” is a series of posts for business leaders and entrepreneurs interested in using the cloud to scale their business without wasting millions of capital on infrastructure. Despite being relatively simple, information about \u201cthe Cloud\u201d is overrun with frustratingly unclear jargon. These guides aim to cut through the hype and give you the information you need to convince stakeholders that scaling your business in the cloud is an essential next step. We hope you find them useful, and will let us know what additional insight you might need.” –The Editors<\/span><\/p>\n What is Cloud Storage?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cBig Data\u201d is a phrase people love to throw around in advertising and planning documents, despite the fact that the term itself is rarely defined the same way by any two businesses, even among industry leaders. However, everyone can agree about its rapidly growing importance\u2014understanding Big Data and how to leverage it for the greatest value will be of critical organizational concern for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n So then what does Big Data really mean? Who is it for? Where does it come from? Where is it stored? What makes it so big, anyway? Let\u2019s bring Big Data down to size.<\/p>\n First things first, for purposes of this discussion, \u201cBig\u201d means any amount of data that exceeds the storage capacity of a single organization. \u201cData\u201d refers to information stored or processed on a computer. Collectively, then, \u201cBig Data\u201d is a massive volume of both structured or unstructured (or both) data that is too large to effectively process using traditional relational database management systems or applications. In more general terms, when your infrastructure is too small to handle the data your business is generating\u2014either because the volume of data is too large, it moves too fast, or it simply exceeds the current processing capacity of your systems\u2014you\u2019ve entered the realm of Big Data.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at the defining characteristics.<\/p>\n Current definitions of Big Data often reference a \u201ctriple (or in some cases quadruple) V\u201d construct for detailing its characteristics. The \u201cV\u201ds reference velocity, volume, variety, and variability. We\u2019ll define them for you here:<\/p>\n Velocity refers to the speed of generation of the data\u2014the pace at which data flows in from sources like business processes, application logs, networks, and social media sites, sensors, mobile devices, etc. This speed determines how rapidly data must be processed to meet business demands, which determines the real potential for the data.<\/p>\n The term Big Data itself obviously references significant volume. But beyond just being \u201cbig,\u201d the relative size of a data set is a fundamental factor in determining its value. The volume of data stored by an organization is used to ascertain its scalability, accessibility, and ease or difficulty of management. A few examples of high volume data sets are all of the credit card transactions in the United States on a given day; the entire collection of medical records in Europe; and every video uploaded to YouTube in an hour. A small to moderate volume might be the total number of credit card transactions in your business.<\/p>\n Variety refers to how many disparate or separate data sources contribute to an organization\u2019s Big Data, along with the intrinsic nature of the data coming from each source. This relates to both structured and unstructured data. Years ago, spreadsheets and databases were the primary sources of data handled by the majority of applications. Today, data is generated in a multitude of formats such as email, photos, videos, monitoring devices, PDFs, audio, etc.,\u2014all of which demand different considerations in analysis applications. This variety of formats can potentially create issues for storage, mining, and analyzing data.<\/p>\n\n
What is Big Data?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Characteristics of Big Data<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Velocity<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Volume<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Variety<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Variability<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"What](\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/data-lakes-banner-1.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"illustration](\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/data-lakes-banner-2.jpeg\" "\\"Data")
<\/p>\n![\"Data](\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/data-lakes-banner-3.jpeg\" "\\"What")
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