The 3 Vs of Big Data - Volume, Velocity and Variety

 Do you know the Vs from Big Data? Have you ever heard about it?

Unsplash (2020)

It is not only the amount of data that define Big Data; the proposal is to offer a consistent approach in dealing with the constant growth and complexity of the data. The concept considers the 5 V's of Big Data: Volume, Velocity, Variety, Veracity and Value. But to understand the idea, let's go to the principal based on a pillar of 3 items:

1. Volume:  Is the first V is the most apparent; it concerns the amount of data from various sources acquired by companies and humans. It includes financial, social network or machine data, depending on the segment you are referring it. Also, is best evidenced by the facts of everyday life: such as the volume of email exchanges, bank transactions, interactions on social networks, call logging and data traffic on telephone lines and so on. (Wishworks, 2020).  The amount of data that we humans have already produced has recently exceeded 1 Zettabyte. That is one sextillion bytes. What is generated from this massive volume is what we call variety, our second V.

2. Variety: Would be the formats in which the data is generated, whether they are structured in numbers, databases, or not. We speak of variety because we are dealing with both structured and unstructured textual data, such as photos, video, sounds, documents, emails and many more. Therefore, our Big Data systems must take into account our third V, Velocity.

3. Velocity: Is pointed out as one of the main characteristics of Big Data. After all, as technologies advanced, data started to be transmitted at a much higher speed. On a social network or with management software, you can collect information in real-time. Today for some businesses, 1 minute can be a long time, fraud detection, payment releases, medical data analysis or any other time-sensitive information (Wishworks, 2020). It is essential to be able to deal with velocity effectively. To analyse all the results in real-time and generate strategic and competitive advantages.

Through the combination of these 3Vs and the elaboration of the right questions, a sound system contributes to the making of increasingly assertive decisions.

Unsplash (2020)

References:

1.       Whishworks.com (2020). ‘Understanding the 3 Vs of Big Data - Volume, Velocity and Variety’. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.whishworks.com/blog/big-data/understanding-the-3-vs-of-big-data-volume-velocity-and-variety (Accessed 1 February 2020)

2.       Unsplash (2020). ‘Data. Available at: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/data’. [ONLINE]  (Accessed: 3 February2020)