What is Big Data?
Big Data powers the modern digital economy. Learn what Big Data means, how it works, and why mastering Big Data skills is essential for today’s data-driven enterprises.
Understanding the Term “Big Data”
Big Data and its analysis techniques are at the core of modern science, technology, and business innovation. Every day, millions of transactions, emails, photos, videos, posts, and search queries generate terabytes of new data. All that data is stored across distributed databases and cloud platforms around the world.
This enormous data volume potentially contains a wealth of actionable insights. By analyzing the data generated daily, governments, researchers, and companies can uncover valuable patterns and trends to guide decisions and innovations. For governments, this might mean detecting tax fraud or improving national economic policies. For researchers, it could involve discovering new medicines. For businesses, it might identify the best new store locations or enhance customer engagement strategies.
Although these applications differ, the underlying process of extracting insights from raw data remains remarkably similar across sectors.
The Challenge of Extracting Value
Extracting valuable knowledge from massive datasets is far more complex than it sounds. The sheer volume, variety, and velocity of data make it difficult to capture, store, manage, and analyze information effectively. As databases expand exponentially, it becomes a challenge to transform raw data into meaningful insights.
Because of these challenges, expertise in how to interpret and derive value from large-scale data has become an increasingly important professional skill set. This growing field of study is collectively known as “Big Data.”
Defining Big Data
Although the importance of Big Data has been recognized for over a decade, its definition varies among practitioners and organizations. Generally, the term refers to data sets so large or complex that traditional tools and infrastructure cannot process them efficiently.
However, Big Data is more than just a matter of size or speed; it represents a comprehensive knowledge domain that bridges data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI). These disciplines work together to help organizations transform raw data into predictive insights and intelligent automation.
The Enterprise Big Data Framework Definition
While many definitions exist, DASCIN’s Enterprise Big Data Framework adopts a holistic approach that views Big Data as a knowledge domain focused on insights and value creation.
Big Data is the knowledge domain that explores the techniques, skills, and technology to deduce valuable insights out of massive quantities of data.
The objective of DASCIN’s Enterprise Big Data Framework is to present these techniques, skills, and technologies in a structured, enterprise-ready approach. Through our framework, professionals gain the ability to transform raw data into fact-based, data-driven insights that guide smarter decisions.
Our learning materials introduce foundational concepts, terminology, and key characteristics of Big Data, preparing you for deeper study across advanced topics in data analytics, governance, and architecture.
Next Steps: Building Big Data Proficiency
In subsequent articles, we will introduce DASCIN’s Enterprise Big Data Framework, a holistic model built around six core capabilities designed to help enterprises increase Big Data maturity. Each section builds upon the previous, guiding learners toward practical mastery of enterprise-level data analysis and governance.
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