What Is Big Data, And Why Invest?

Big Data and why Invest: Companies that want to remain competitive in the market and stand out need to keep up with the movements generated by digital transformation.

This makes it possible to offer more adequate solutions to the public and obtain several opportunities for optimization in management and strategic planning.

Among the possibilities, it is worth highlighting Big Data. It is related to the volume of information that companies can access daily — which, if used correctly, can bring several benefits to the business.

Want to know why it’s worth investing in this tool? So, continue reading this guide that we have prepared. You will learn what Big Data is, how it works, its benefits and how to implement it.

Table of Contents

What Is Big Data, And How Does It Work?

The emergence of more technological systems, especially after the expansion of the internet in the 2000s, resulted in more and more data available on the networks. Soon, companies also began to deal with larger volumes of information to evaluate in their daily lives.

This is because, when analyzing the available data, it is possible to find patterns that can help predict customer behavior, analyze company results, make results projections and perform other tasks that collaborate with business management. In this context, the concept of Big Data emerged.

The term refers to the large amount and variety of data the company can collect quickly. Thus, they can be converted into valuable information and generate different insights to assist business development.

However, this also brings a challenge: how to handle and process this large volume of data? With this, Big Data must be combined with other solutions, such as Artificial Intelligence and Business Intelligence, to enable its strategic use in the business.

For the same reason, Big Data does not have a standard, immutable model. It will depend on how the company decides to handle the information and tools used in the process. But in general, this involves collecting, integrating, managing, and ultimately analyzing the records.

What Are The 5 Vs Of Big Data?

To better understand the concept of Big Data, it is interesting to know the “5 Vs” that define it. They refer to principles or characteristics that help identify aspects and challenges of the large volume of data available due to digital transformation and increased internet use. In practice, the 5 Vs are Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity and Value. Learn more about them:

Volume

Big Data is related to a large volume of data that is generated daily and collected by companies — and this is the first V. The emergence of this information occurs through various sources, such as customer registration, closing contracts, and marketing strategies.

In addition, data can be collected from the company’s internal systems or through external tools such as social networks. As a result of diversity, trillions of gigabytes are created annually in data.

It is worth noting that digital transformation has also expanded the way this data is created and made available. The performance of Artificial Intelligence in different systems, for example, rapidly increases the volume of information generated daily.

Variety

With so much data available, you have to keep in mind that there is a variety of information, especially given the different data sources used. This also means they are not just written and conventional, organized in tables or forms, for example.

The concept is much broader—and even a little disorganized. After all, it is possible to find data in different formats, such as:

Photos
Illustrations
screen prints
Audios
Videos

Speed

Another very important feature of Big Data is the speed with which data is produced daily. Several operations and records are performed at all times on sites and systems that share information. Still, there are social networks and the company’s internal systems.

With the support of technology, all this happens quickly, often in an automated way and in seconds. At the same time, as there are multiple sources generating records simultaneously, this enhances the speed with which data emerges.

The difference is that, with Big Data, all information can be worked on simultaneously and instantly. Through the tool, it is also possible to store and systematize all data so the company can use them.

The three Vs mentioned so far are the most traditional, which formed the initial concept to define what Big Data is. However, it evolved and presented more characteristics – which will be delivered by the two Vs below.

Veracity

It is useless for the company to have a series of data to process and develop strategies if they are inadequate and of low quality. They must be true and correct to avoid analyzing results that are not useful – or can harm the business.

Therefore, Big Data must involve validation and data conference processes, selecting those with greater reliability. With the emergence of the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), it is possible to count on solutions that help in this matter.

From there, it will be easier to link, clean and transform data, generating reports and statistics to support different business management analyses.

Value

Finally, there’s no point in having a large volume of data to work with if they don’t help add value to the business, right? Therefore, Big Data also exists to generate information that is relevant to the company. From this, managers can direct decisions to optimize strategic planning.

Also Read: Six Examples Of Big Data In Different Market Contexts