Name: Osman Adam

Report 1 on Big Data

Introduction
The term big data has become very important nowadays; it is almost used in every company or
organisation. In this report, I will be discussing the key elements of big data and how it is used to
effectively store and manage data.

The topics I am going to discuss are the definition of data, the historical development of big data, the
growth of big data, the reasons for the growth of big data, the value of big data, and finally the
characteristics of big data.

Definition of big data:

Big data refers to huge datasets with diverse data types that cannot be normally stored and
processed using typical data processing software (Kelly 2004).

Example:
Burgess (2021) suggests that a tech company like Google collects huge and different amounts of data
from users, which includes Gmail messages, photos, videos, browsing history, and more. Google has
4.3 billion users around the world which makes the storage and the management of data a big
challenge without the use of big data.

Historical Development of Big Data:

Big data have been evaluated throughout history, in the early days big data used to be analysed using
structured data, and relational databases have been used to primarily manage it.

Big data started to be used for the first time in the mid-20th century, when the electronic devices
started to advance, making it easier for more data to be utilized.

Example:
Data Volume: it wasn’t until the 20th century that the usage of big data started, in the past
organisations primarily used to store data using structured data and databases. However, nowadays
with the continued use of digital technology, the production of data experienced a huge increase,
unimaginable amounts of data are being produced every day from various sources like social media,
sensors, and more (Big Data Framework, 2023).

A brief historical overview:

Pre-2000s:

According to Phillips (2021), Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Caillou created the World Wide Web and
created HTML, URLs and HTTP, which was the reason behind why more people started using the
Internet.
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In 1996 the storage of digital devices became cheaper than printed papers for the first time, which
made more people want to store their data digitally.

In 1997 the domain google.com was created, since the success of the search engine other electronic
inventions began to merge, including machine learning, big data, and analytics.

In the early 2000s:

In 2001 Doug Laney created the concept of the 3Vs (Volume, Velocity, and Variety), which described
the characteristics of big data.

Then in 2005 Doug Cutting and Mike Caferella invented Apache Hadoop, which is a framework that
was created to process and store large data sets.

In 2006 Amazon.com started offering free cloud-based computer services, now called “Cloud
Computing”.

In the late 2000s:

In 2013, the world market for big data has reached $100 billion.

In the present 2020s:

Research carried by Allied Market Research showed that the market of big data surpassed $193
billion in 2019. It also estimated that by 2027 it going to reach 420.98 billion, growing annually by
10.9%.

Growth of Data:
Nowadays data is generated at an unpredictable rate from various sources such as social media IoT
and sensors. To put this into perspective consider the following statistics:

According to Shewale (2023), Twitter users tweet 350,000 tweets are tweeted every minute,
resulting in five hundred million tweets generated globally every day. Meanwhile, Facebook says the
daily uploads of photos is three hundred million photos. On YouTube, five hundred hours of video
content is watched every single minute.

How the growth of big data is measured:

Volume: Big data is all about the volumes of data that can reach extremely considerable amounts, it
is estimated that each day 2.5 quintillion of data are created, in 2020 there were 64.2 zettabytes of
data generated – which is 500 times more than the amount data created in 2005 (StatInvestor, n.d.).

Velocity: the velocity measures how fast the data is being generated, and how fast it flows.
Variety: the variety is data types, and how it differs from one to another. E.g., audio, video, and
images.

Reasons for the growth of big data:

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The growth of big data has been driven by several factors including:
IoT Devices: The use of the Internet of Things has become so popular, according to research worked
by the International Data Corporation, it is predicted that by 2025 IoT devices will increase to 41.6
billion devices, which are able to generate over 79 zettabytes of data.

Social media:

Social media platforms have become a very important part of everyone’s lives nowadays, and the
data we generate when we use social media is huge.

According to Marr (2021), here is some social media data that we create every minute:

 Snapchat users share over 500, 000 photos.

 120 professionals join LinkedIn.
 More than 4 million videos are watched on YouTube.
 Twitter users generate over 400, 000 tweets.
 on Instagram 46, 000 photos are shared.

E-commerce: millions of users use e-commerce websites every day, and these websites collect huge
amounts of data from their users, such as user’s profiles, reviews and ratings.

Digital transformation: as more companies and organizations started to use digital technology to
improve their business and more processes are becoming digitalized, more data is generated,
collected and stored.

Sensors: sensors are devices used to collect and process signals and they turn them into data. After
the data has been processed it will then be stored in local storage, cloud storage or any other storage
platform they use.

Scientific Research: scientific research generates big data in a lot of ways and that is based on what
kind of research is it. In research like genomics, massive amounts of data are generated from DNA
molecules.

Example:

According to Salesforce (2023), healthcare’s digital transformation includes the management of

electronic health records. Each patient's visit and prescription results are part of the creation of
digital data. Over time, the collected patient data will result in a decent volume of data, which can
then be used to enhance the health organisation.

Value of Big Data

Nowadays big data has become essential for any business, because it can value the business in
different ways, such as the prediction of analytics, personalization and more.

Business Insights:
Big data is used in companies in different ways, such as improving their customer service, the
personalization of their marketing, and advertising, this will increase customers and profit.

Predictive Analytics:
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Predictive analytics uses big data to help businesses predict events and gives solutions for
businesses, it analyses past, present and future’s sources to help businesses oversee upcoming
problems (Google Cloud, n.d.).

Personalisation:
Personalisation is one of the most important benefits of big data, it creates a different profile for
each user individually, enabling them to only view what they are interested in, because of the data
collected from their browsing or purchasing history.

Medical Advances:
Big data is used in medical advances to predict diseases that may happen, giving better diagnoses,
and to improves the hospital's performance.

Health Care Improvement:

The collection of millions of patients’ data improves medical health, but that is not its only benefit, it
can also save patient’s lives. When AI is trained using the collected data, it can help to identify
possible diseases before they occur.

Climate Change:
The use of big data in climate change helps with the warning generation, because of the data
collected like the rainfall and the soil conditions, it can send warnings before any climate disaster
happens.

Future values of big data:

When AI and big data combine, they will have the potential to bring about a revolution in the way
organisations make decisions. By taking benefits from the capabilities of AI algorithms, organisations
can process large amounts of data and predict upcoming trends. By using AI-powered-decision-
making, organisations will have the ability to improve efficiency and reduce costs (FISClouds, 2023).

Example:
Enable Targeted Advertising: when companies collect more and more data about their customers, it
becomes easier for them to determine what the user is interested in, that will make it easier for the
company to target the users with specific adverts that will most likely be clicked by them (AdRoll,
2023).

Characteristics of Big Data:

The characteristics of big data also sometimes called “the 6 Vs”, allow data scientist to determine the
benefits of the collected data.

Volume:
The volume of big data is about the amount of data the company have collected. Whether
data is considered big data or not depends on the amount of its volume.
Velocity:
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Next, we have Velocity, which is about the speed at which data is generated and how quickly it flows.
This is an important factor for companies because they need data to be consistently available when
making business decisions.

Variety:
The next V is variety. Variety pertains to the diversity of data types. An organization can collect data
from different data sources, which might be different in value. Data can also be generated from
inside or outside the enterprise. The biggest challenge associated with diverse data types lies in the
need to standardize and share all the collected data effectively.

Veracity:
it refers to the quality of the data and how accurate is it. Some of the collected data could be
missing, inaccurate, or could lack meaning, or valuable insights, overall, Veracity refers to how
trusted is the collected data.

Value:
This refers to the importance of big data, and what it can provide, it is directly connected to what the
organization is going to use the collected data for. Getting benefits out of big data is a requirement,
as the value of big data is always in increase depending on the benefits gained.

Visualisation:
According to Tiburca (2021), Data visualisation is when big data is represented in a visual way
whether through histograms, bar charts scatter plots or any other way that data is represented in a
visual way that makes it easier to understand.

Example:
Consider a healthcare industry such as the NHS, managing the data about a patient digitally, requires
them to store a huge amount of data about the patient (volume). Updating the patient’s records
continuously as the patient is receiving care (Velocity). Working with different data types, including
text medical records, and medical images taken from the patient (Variety). Making sure that the
patient’s data is accurate and stored securely (Veracity). Upgrading the patient’s care through
predictive analytics (Value). Presenting the patient's health progress using reports, charts, and
graphs e.g., blood pressure and heart rate (Visualisation) (NHS Digital, 2023).

Referencing:

Definition of Big Data:

1. Segal, T. (2022) Definition of big data. Available at:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/big-data.asp (Accessed 24 September 2023).

2. Burgess, M. (2021 All the data Google’s apps collect about you. Available at:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-app-gmail-chrome-data#:~:text=Data%20that%20is
%20sent%20to%20Google%20for%20advertising%20or%20marketing%3A%20Location
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%20information%2C%20contact%20info%20(including%20physical%20address%2C%20email
%20and%20name)%2C%20search%20history%2C%20browsing%20history%2C%20user
%20identifiers%20(user%20ID%20and%20device%20ID)%2C%20and%20usage%20data
%20(product%20interaction%20and%20advertising%20data). (Accessed 24 September
2023).

Historical Development of Big Data:

3. Phillips, A. (2021) A history and timeline of big data. Available at:

https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/A-history-and-timeline-of-big-data (Accessed 24
September 2023).

4. Big Data Framework (2023) A Short History of Big Data. Available at:
https://www.bigdataframework.org/knowledge/a-short-history-of-big-data/ (Accessed 24
September 2023).

Growth of Big Data:

5. Chauhan, P. & Sood, M. (2021) Big Data: Present and Future. Available at:
https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/co/2021/04/09399951/1sF3Fj2mlMY (Accessed
25 September 2023).

6. StatInvestor (n.d.) Information created globally 2005-2025. Available at:

https://statinvestor.com/data/35219/data-created-worldwide/ (Accessed 25 September
2023).

7. (2018) BIG DATA: THE 3 VS EXPLAINED. Available at: https://bigdataldn.com/news/big-data-

the-3-vs-explained/ (Accessed 25 September 2023).

8. (2023) Twitter Statistics In 2023. Available at: https://www.demandsage.com/twitter-

statistics/#:~:text=A%20tweet%20is%20a%20post,200%20billion%20tweets%20every
%20year. (Accessed 25 September 2023).

Reasons for Growth of Big Data:

9. Lucido, S. & Hummel, P. (2020) Internet of Things and data placement. Available at:
https://infohub.delltechnologies.com/l/edge-to-core-and-the-internet-of-things-2/internet-
of-things-and-data-placement/ (Accessed 25 September 2023).
10. Salesforce (2023) How Is Digital Transformation for Healthcare Evolving in 2023? Available at:
https://www.salesforce.com/uk/news/stories/digital-transformation-healthcare/
#:~:text=Research%20from%20Salesforce%20shows%20that,operational%20costs%2C
%20and%20automated%20workflows. (Accessed 25 September 2023).

11. Marr, B. (2021) How Much Data Do We Create Every Day? The Mind-Blowing Stats Everyone
Should Read. Available at: https://bernardmarr.com/how-much-data-do-we-create-every-
day-the-mind-blowing-stats-everyone-should-read/ (Accessed 25 September 2023).

12. Pratt, M.K. & Boulton, C. (2023) What is digital transformation? A necessary disruption.
Available at: https://www.cio.com/article/230425/what-is-digital-transformation-a-
necessary-disruption.html (Accessed 25 September 2023).

13. Lutkevich, B. (2023) Definition sensor data. Available at:

https://www.techtarget.com/iotagenda/definition/sensor-data (Accessed 25 September
2023).
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Value of Big Data:

14. Botelho, B. (2022) DEFINITION big data. Available at:

https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/big-data#:~:text=For
%20example%2C%20big%20data%20provides,customer%20engagement%20and
%20conversion%20rates (Accessed 26 September 2023).

15. Lau, Wilson. (2023) What is Targeted Advertising?. Available at:

https://www.adroll.com/blog/what-is-targeted-advertising#:~:text=Targeted
%20advertisements%20rely%20on%20data,who%20are%20unlikely%20to%20convert.
(Accessed 26 September 2023).

16. Google Cloud (n.d.) What is predictive analytics?. Available at:

https://cloud.google.com/learn/what-is-predictive-analytics#:~:text=Predictive%20analytics
%20is%20the%20process,that%20might%20predict%20future%20behavior. (Accessed 25
September 2023).

17. Ganiyu, I.S. (2022) Big Data Predictive Analytics Comparison & Working Simplified 101.
Available at: https://hevodata.com/learn/big-data-predictive-analytics/#:~:text=Big%20Data
%20Predictive%20Analytics%20Processing,-Image%20Source&text=Predictive%20Analytics
%20uses%20Big%20Data,past%2C%20present%2C%20or%20future. (Accessed 26 September
2023).

18. FISClouds (2023) Big Data Meets AI: The Future Of Decision Making. Available at:
https://www.fisclouds.com/big-data-meets-ai-the-future-of-decision-making-9512/
#:~:text=The%20integration%20of%20big%20data,about%20future%20trends%20and
%20patterns. . (Accessed 04 October 2023).

19.

20. Marinina, M. (2019) Big Data in Ecommerce Personalization, Explained. Available at:
https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwijtcnh6b6BAxU8V
kEAHWhABUgQFnoECBAQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fround-lake.dustinice.workers.dev%3A443%2Fhttps%2Ftowardsdatascience.com%2Fbig-data-
in-ecommerce-personalization-explained-580efa0dec50%23%3A~%3Atext%3DBig%2520data
%2520helps%2520to%2520build%2Cof%2520the%2520products%2520they
%2520buy.&usg=AOvVaw0Ez7G72gCw_QDpyQvvEDPV&opi=89978449 (Accessed 26
September 2023).

21. Beall, A.-L. (n.d.) Big Data in Health Care. Available at:
https://www.sas.com/en_gb/insights/articles/big-data/big-data-in-healthcare.html

(Accessed 26 September 2023).

22. Mohanlal, S. (2022) The Impact of Big Data on Modern Society. Available at:
https://www.getsmarter.com/blog/market-trends/the-impact-of-big-data-on-modern-
society/ (Accessed 26 September 2023).

23. Dilmegani, C. (2023) 4 Ways Big Data Can Help Fight Climate Change in 2023. Available at:
https://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiuodvUgb-
BAxXqSEEAHVH4AEYQFnoECBQQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fround-lake.dustinice.workers.dev%3A443%2Fhttps%2Fresearch.aimultiple.com
%2Fclimate-change-data%2F%23%3A~%3Atext%3DBig%2520data%2520can%2520help
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%2520generate%2Cchanges%2520in%2520the%2520natural
%2520environment.&usg=AOvVaw1EClAnN1Vjx-0ahMrov7iw&opi=89978449 (Accessed 26
September 2023).

Characteristics of Big Data:

24. Gillis, A.S. (2021) 5 Vs of big data. Available at:
https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatamanagement/definition/5-Vs-of-big-data (Accessed
27 September 2023).

25. Brush, K. & Burns, E. (2022) Data visualization. Available at:

https://www.techtarget.com/searchbusinessanalytics/definition/data-visualization (Accessed
27 September 2023).

26. Tiburca, H. (2021) Big Data Visualization: What is it, Tips & Tools (Beginner’s Guide). Available
at: https://visme.co/blog/big-data-visualization/ (Accessed 27 September 2023).

27. NHS Digital (2023) Understanding data in health and care. Available at:
https://digital.nhs.uk/your-data/understanding-data-in-health-and-care (Accessed 25
September 2023).