Understanding Big Data

Abstract

In today's world, it is necessary to use data or information available in a wise manner to make effective business decisions and define better objectives. If the information available is not utilized to its full extent, organizations might lose their reputation and position in this competitive world. However, data needs to be processed appropriately to gain constructive insights from it, and the heterogeneous nature of this data makes this increasingly more complex and time-consuming. The ever-increasing growth of data generated is far more than human processing capabilities and thus computing methods need to be automated to scale effectively. This chapter defines Big Data basically and provides an overview of Big Data in terms of current status, organizational effects (technology, health care, education, etc.), implementation challenges and Big Data projects. This research adopted literature review as methodology and refined valuable information through current journals, books, magazines and blogs.