The Characteristics of Big Data: The 5 Vs and Beyond
Volume: The Scale of Data Volume refers to the sheer amount of data generated and stored. In the big data era, organizations deal with terabytes, petabytes, or even exabytes of information, far exceeding the capacity of traditional systems. Examples : A large e-commerce platform like Amazon handles petabytes of customer data, including purchase history, browsing behavior, and reviews. Similarly, the Large Hadron Collider generates 25 petabytes of particle collision data annually. Interplay : High volume often necessitates distributed storage solutions like Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and drives the need for parallel processing frameworks like Apache Spark. Metrics : Measured in bytes (kilobytes to exabytes), with storage capacity (e.g., terabytes per node) and data growth rate (e.g., 20% annually) as key indicators. Velocity: The Speed of Data Velocity describes the speed at which data is generated, processed, and acted upon. Real-time or near-real-time data flows are...