Chapter 2: Data Science

2. 1. An Overview of Data Science

Data science is a multi-disciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms, and
systems to extract knowledge and insights from structured, semi-structured and unstructured data.
Data science is much more than simply analyzing data. It offers a range of roles and requires a
range of skills.

2.1.1. What are data and information?

Data can be defined as a representation of facts, concepts, or instructions in a formalized manner,

which should be suitable for communication, interpretation, or processing, by human or electronic
machines. It can be described as unprocessed facts and figures. It is represented with the help of
characters such as alphabets (A-Z, a- z), digits (0-9) or special characters (+, -, /, *, <,>, =, etc.).
Whereas information is the processed data on which decisions and actions are based. It is data that
has been processed into a form that is meaningful to the recipient and is of real or perceived value
in the current or the prospective action or decision of recipient. Furtherer more, information is
interpreted data; created from organized, structured, and processed data in a particular context.

2. 1. 2. Data Processing Cycle

Data processing is the re-structuring or re-ordering of data by people or machines to increase their
usefulness and add values for a particular purpose. Data processing consists of the following basic
steps - input, processing, and output.

These three steps constitute the data processing cycle.

Figure 2.1 Data Processing Cycle

 Input − in this step, the input data is prepared in some convenient form for processing. The
form will depend on the processing machine. For example, when electronic computers are
used, the input data can be recorded on any one of the several types of storage medium,
such as hard disk, CD, flash disk and so on.

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  Processing − in this step, the input data is changed to produce data in a more useful form.
For example, interest can be calculated on deposit to a bank, or a summary of sales for the
month can be calculated from the sales orders.

 Output − at this stage, the result of the proceeding processing step is collected. The
particular form of the output data depends on the use of the data. For example, output data
may be payroll for employees.

2.3 Data types and their representation

Data types can be described from diverse perspectives. In computer science and computer
programming, for instance, a data type is simply an attribute of data that tells the compiler or
interpreter how the programmer intends to use the data.
2.3.1. Data types from Computer programming pe rspective
Almost all programming languages explicitly include the notion of data type, though different
languages may use different terminology. Common data types include:
 Integers(int)- is used to store whole numbers, mathematically known as integers

 Booleans(bool)- is used to represent restricted to one of two values: true or false

 Characters(char)- is used to store a single character

 Floating-point numbers(float)- is used to store real numbers

 Alphanumeric strings(string)- used to store a combination of characters and numbers

A data type makes the values that expression, such as a variable or a function, might take. This
data type defines the operations that can be done on the data, the meaning of the data, and the way
values of that type can be stored.

2.3.2. Data types from Data Analytics perspective

From a data analytics point of view, it is important to understand that there are three common types
of data types or structures: Structured, Semi-structured, and Unstructured data types. Fig. 2.2
below describes the three types of data and metadata.

Figure 2.2 Data types from a data analytics perspective

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 i. Structured Data
Structured data is data that adheres to a pre-defined data model and is therefore straightforward to
analyze. Structured data conforms to a tabular format with a relationship between the different
rows and columns. Common examples of structured data are Excel files or SQL databases. Each
of these has structured rows and columns that can be sorted.

ii. Semi-structured Data

Semi-structured data is a form of structured data that does not conform with the formal structure of
data models associated with relational databases or other forms of data tables, but nonetheless,
contains tags or other markers to separate semantic elements and enforce hierarchies of records and
fields within the data. Therefore, it is also known as a self-describing structure. Examples of semi-
structured data include JSON and XML are forms of semi-structured data.
iii. Unstructured Data
Unstructured data is information that either does not have a predefined data model or is not
organized in a pre-defined manner. Unstructured information is typically text-heavy but may
contain data such as dates, numbers, and facts as well. This results in irregularities and ambiguities
that make it difficult to understand using traditional programs as compared to data stored in
structured databases. Common examples of unstructured data include audio, video files or No- SQL
databases.
 Metadata – Data about Data
The last category of data type is metadata. From a technical point of view, this is not a separate data
structure, but it is one of the most important elements for Big Data analysis and big data solutions.
Metadata is data about data. It provides additional information about a specific set of data.
In a set of photographs, for example, metadata could describe when and where the photos were
taken. The metadata then provides fields for dates and locations which, by themse lves, can be
considered structured data. Because of this reason, metadata is frequently used by Big Data
solutions for initial analysis.
2.4. Data value Chain
The Data Value Chain is introduced to describe the information flow within a big data system as a
series of steps needed to generate value and useful insights from data. The Big Data Value Chain
identifies the following key high- level activities:

Figure 2.3 Data Value Chain

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 2.4.1. Data Acquisition
It is the process of gathering, filtering, and cleaning data before it is put in a data warehouse or any
other storage solution on which data analysis can be carried out. Data acquisition is one of the
major big data challenges in terms of infrastructure requirements. The infrastructure required to
support the acquisition of big data must deliver low, predictable latency in both capturing data and
in executing queries; be able to handle very high transaction volumes, often in a distributed
environment; and support flexible and dynamic data structures.
2.4.2. Data Analysis
It is concerned with making the raw data acquired amenable to use in decision- making as well as
domain-specific usage. Data analysis involves exploring, transforming, and modeling data with
the goal of highlighting relevant data, synthesizing and extracting useful hidden information with
high potential from a business point of view. Related areas include data mining, business
intelligence, and machine learning.
2.4.3. Data Curation
It is the active management of data over its life cycle to ensure it meets the necessary data quality
requirements for its effective usage. Data curation processes can be categorized into different
activities such as content creation, selection, classification, transformation, validation, and
preservation.
Data curation is performed by expert curators that are responsible for improving the accessibility
and quality of data. Data curators (also known as scientific curators or data annotators) hold the
responsibility of ensuring that data are trustworthy, discoverable, accessible, reusable and fit their
purpose. A key trend for the duration of big data utilizes community and crowdsourcing
approaches.
2.4.4. Data Storage
It is the persistence and management of data in a scalable way that satisfies the needs of
applications that require fast access to the data. Relational Database Management Systems
(RDBMS) have been the main, and almost unique, a solution to the storage paradigm for nearly 40
years. However, the ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability) properties that
guarantee database transactions lack flexibility with regard to schema changes and the
performance and fault tolerance when data volumes and complexity grow, making them unsuitable
for big data scenarios. NoSQL technologies have been designed with the scalability goal in mind
and present a wide range of solutions based on alternative data models.

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 2.4.5. Data Usage
It covers the data-driven business activities that need access to data, its analysis, and the tools
needed to integrate the data analysis within the business activity. Data usage in business decision-
making can enhance competitiveness through the reduction of costs, increased added value, or any
other parameter that can be measured against existing performance criteria.

2.5. Basic concepts of big data

Big data is a blanket term for the non-traditional strategies and technologies needed to gather,
organize, process, and gather insights from large datasets. While the problem of working with data
that exceeds the computing power or storage of a single computer is not new, the pervasiveness,
scale, and value of this type of computing have greatly expanded in recent years.
In this section, we will talk about big data on a fundamental level and define common concepts
you might come across. We will also take a high- level look at some of the processes and
technologies currently being used in this space.
2.5.1. What Is Big Data?
Big data is the term for a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to
process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications.
In this context, a “large dataset” means a dataset too large to reasonably process or store with
traditional tooling or on a single computer. This means that the common scale of big datasets is
constantly shifting and may vary significantly from organization to organization. Big data is
characterized by 3V and more:

 Volume : large amounts of data Zeta bytes/Massive datasets

 Velocity: Data is live streaming or in motion
 Variety: data comes in many different forms from diverse sources
 Veracity: can we trust the data? How accurate is it? etc.

Figure 2.4 Characteristics of big data

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 2.5.2. Clustered Computing and Hadoop Ecosystem
2.5.2.1. Clustered Computing
Because of the qualities of big data, individual computers are often inadequate for handling the
data at most stages. To better address the high storage and computational needs of big data,
computer clusters are a better fit.
Big data clustering software combines the resources of many smaller machines, seeking to provide
a number of benefits:
 Resource Pooling: Combining the available storage space to hold data is a clear benefit,
but CPU and memory pooling are also extremely important. Processing large datasets
requires large amounts of all three of these resources.
 High Availability: Clusters can provide varying levels of fault tolerance and availability
guarantees to prevent hardware or software failures from affecting access to data and
processing. This becomes increasingly important as we continue to e mphasize the
importance of real-time analytics.
 Easy Scalability: Clusters make it easy to scale horizontally by adding additional machines
to the group. This means the system can react to changes in resource requirements without
expanding the physical resources on a machine.
Using clusters requires a solution for managing cluster membership, coordinating resource sharing,
and scheduling actual work on individual nodes. Cluster membership and resource allocation can
be handled by software like Hadoop’s YARN (which stands for Yet Another Resource
Negotiator).
The assembled computing cluster often acts as a foundation that other software interfaces with to
process the data. The machines involved in the computing cluster are also typically involved with
the management of a distributed storage system, which we will talk about when we discuss data
persistence.

2.5.2.2. Hadoop and its Ecosystem

Hadoop is an open-source framework intended to make interaction with big data easier. It is a
framework that allows for the distributed processing of large datasets across clusters of computers
using simple programming models. It is inspired by a technical document published by Google.
The four key characteristics of Hadoop are:
 Economical: Its systems are highly economical as ordinary computers can be used for
data processing.
 Reliable: It is reliable as it stores copies of the data on different machines and is resistant
to hardware failure.

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  Scalable: It is easily scalable both, horizontally and vertically. A few extra nodes help in
scaling up the framework.

 Flexible: It is flexible and you can store as much structured and unstructured data as you
need to and decide to use them later.
Hadoop has an ecosystem that has evolved from its four core components: data management,
access, processing, and storage. It is continuously growing to meet the needs of Big Data. It
comprises the following components and many others:
 HDFS: Hadoop Distributed File System
 YARN: Yet Another Resource Negotiator
 MapReduce: Programming based Data Processing
 Spark: In-Memory data processing
 PIG, HIVE: Query-based processing of data services
 HBase: NoSQL Database
 Mahout, Spark MLLib: Machine Learning algorithm libraries
 Solar, Lucene: Searching and Indexing
 Zookeeper: Managing cluster
 Oozie: Job Scheduling
2.5.3. Big Data Life Cycle with Hadoop

Figure 2.5 Hadoop Ecosystem

2.5.3.1. Ingesting data into the system

The first stage of Big Data processing is Ingest. The data is ingested or transferred to Hadoop from
various sources such as relational databases, systems, or local files. Sqoop transfers data from
RDBMS to HDFS, whereas Flume transfers event data.

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2.5.3.2. Processing the data in storage

The second stage is processing. In this stage, the data is stored and processed. The data is stored in
the distributed file system, HDFS, and the NoSQL distributed data, HBase. Spark and MapReduce
perform data processing.
2.5.3.3. Computing and analyzing data

The third stage is to Analyze. Here, the data is analyzed by processing frameworks such as Pig,
Hive, and Impala. Pig converts the data using a map and reduce and then analyzes it. Hive is also
based on the map and reduces programming and is most suitable for structured data.
2.5.3.4. Visualizing the results

The fourth stage is Access, which is performed by tools such as Hue and Cloudera Search. In this
stage, the analyzed data can be accessed by users.