Big data has been making the rounds on mainstream media for a while now, and among businesses large and small, the question of exactly what it is and how to make the most of it has made its rounds.
Big data is important in the world going forward – the consolidation, aggregation and analyzing of all data within a company requires heavy duty networking and software solutions – and chief among them is the popular open source programming framework known as Hadoop.
But before we jump into why big data and Hadoop certification are so incredibly important for a large number of industries, and business large and small going forward through the future, we have to first tackle what big data is.
What is Big Data?
Any number of extremely large data sets, to be aggregated and mined for useful information and statistics, can be considered “big data”. This isn’t just a question of what’s possible in the sense of what one computer can hold – big data specifically refers to so much data that an entire network is needed to store and process it, in real time or otherwise.
Big data is incredibly important for companies with large customer bases and tons of sensitive information. Consumer data from corporations like Facebook and Google needs to be sorted, researched and kept safe from external attacks, while being used to develop better and more profitable products. In the same way, companies with tons of web traffic can utilize big data to develop actionable insights for smarter online business practices based on the raw data gathered off their visitors.
The possibilities with big data are endless, but they all refer to the same process – aggregating, analyzing and acting upon a tremendous amount of relevant and raw data. As per SAS, another way to remember it is through volume, velocity and variety of information.
Big data is most often categorized under one of several large categories; here are some relatively common ones, as per Tutorials Point:
Black box data:
This relates to the information found on black boxes – locked flight recorders that take real-time recordings of absolutely everything, from conversations to altitudes, temperatures, performance metrics and more.
Stock data contains every buy and sell decision made in real time, which is a massive amount of information. This can’t be gleaned and researched simply with the naked eye on Microsoft Excel – it also requires big data tools.
Social networking data:
Social networks like Facebook and Twitter store information from millions (and even billions) of users, keeping track of their likes and dislikes, browsing and buying habits, and what they have to say about specific topics to build a better consumer profile.
What is Hadoop?
As per TechTarget, Hadoop is an open source Java-based programming framework, part of the Apache project, designed to allow applications to handle thousands of terabytes of data across thousands of hardware nodes in a system.
It’s clear, then, why you should implement Hadoop into your business: if you want to make the most of big data, then you need quality Hadoop training for your business through a reputable service provider only.
Big data is a mine. A mine requires a team of miners, minecarts, tracks, pickaxes, lights and safety regulations. In other words, if you want to work with big data, you need the proper tools for the job – and that’s where Hadoop comes into play.