Big Data, Who Are You?

Introduction

You have probably seen it yourself in magazines, on TV or even heard by your friends, the term “Big Data” is now more than ever a fashion word. But what lies behind this little vague concept? An explanation is needed. The concepts behind big data are actually nothing new because data existing over the time, but what makes it so important is the rapid rate and different types in which it is produced in recent time. This brings us to say that data become big: it is “big data!”. In another word, big data is the new form of data which seemed to come back to presenting old wine in a new bottle.

Data has grown from kilobytes (KB) to petabytes (PB). This huge amount of data is referred to as big data and requires advanced tools and software for processing, analyzing and storing purposes. This phenomenon has radically changed the way data are collected and analyzed since it introduces new issues concerning volume, velocity and the variety of data.

I already hear many people questioning the impact of big data and the risk of restricting the creative process. Think again! We should rather see big data as a support for creation. The data will never dictate how to produce creative content, but it can clearly indicate what it should contain in order to capture the interest of events and generate value. People in the business context no longer have to depend on their intuition to ensure the success of their creations. They now have at their disposal a tool that supports them, and which has a much weaker bias.

So should we be afraid of big data or should we exploit it? Between those who think that it is a time saver and a factor of considerable growth and those who are against the exploitation of the data because they consider that it is a violation of their private life; the answer can be found and discovered by yourself by reading this chapter.

Because the new business revolution is based on these data, these billions of tiny pieces of information that allows reinventing, to adapt and to redraw all businesses and services, provided that we can draw useful information and create a minimum of readability in this galaxy of data. This is the real challenge.

Big data is the revolutionary word in today’s world because of its influence on several domains. It is said everywhere that it is the future and that you have to start exploring big data as soon as possible. All right, but where do you start? What to learn? How to extract value from a large volume of available data? Which technology must you adopt? And so on.

Rather than propose an endless inventory types formations, with titles that will maintain this sense of key buzzwords, we preferred to discuss the big data overview: How and why did we get there?

It is by having a better vision of what big data is that you will deduce by yourself what you must look for to become an ace of the subject. Especially, what you need to learn by yourself. This chapter will clarify what big data really is, where it comes from and how it is processed.

Not Only Big But All About Data

Nowadays it does not take much to convince managers or decision-makers alike of the importance of data for their business activities because most of the business activities are associated with the use, the understanding and the exploiting of data (Sedkaoui, 2018a). “Data is everywhere”, “data is the new oil”, “digital oil”, “data is power” … words are diverse and do not miss to describe the importance of ‘data’.

Real atom, data are, over the time, at the heart of thinking about new business strategies, and often the fantasy of all business models for its value. So why suddenly the term ‘data’ is in every conversation and many research are published on the subject throughout the world? What has changed so much and justifies such enthusiasm sometimes verging on collective madness?