The 5 V’s of Big Data
Today, we know that the secret of a successful digital transformation and of being a company that bets on the use of data to improve its operations (data driven company) is in managing data in the right way.
Every second of every day, new data is being created and in a massive way. This is what we know as Big Data, a large volume of data that is generated and must be stored, processed and interpreted optimally to convert that information into knowledge. Performing these tasks is possible thanks to new technologies.
At the business level, the correct use of data can improve customer service, enable better decision-making, predict risks early or improve efficiency, among many other uses.
But to make a good interpretation of the data and benefit from all their advantages you have to know their characteristics, also called the 5 V’s of Big Data, which describe the challenges and opportunities of working with large data. Let's go!
We live in a digitized world where any movement can be tracked and generated in the form of data due to the increase of connected devices, social media, e-commerce, sensors, automated records, etc.
Today, each person produces approximately 2 MB of data every second and this amount is predicted to double every year. Every minute, 188 million emails are sent and around 4.5 million Google searches are made.
Big data technology requires collecting a very high volume of information that accumulates day after day, which involves a challenge, both in terms of storage and processing.
The “V” for velocity is the speed at which data is created, processed and stored so that it can be interpreted in real time and action can be taken as soon as possible. This data is collected and analyzed immediately, without waiting for all the data to be collected to start the analysis.
To achieve this, an adequate infrastructure and technologies must be in place, in addition to algorithms and analysis techniques to process data in real time.
The data that is collected comes from different sources such as websites, sensors, mobile devices, social networks, among others and in different formats such as video, text, numbers, image, audio or metadata.
It should be kept in mind that the information must be processed differently depending on the type. For this reason, different tools and techniques are needed since, for example, text is not processed in the same way as an image.
The information obtained is highly reliable, but it must be taken into account that the greater the variety of data and the velocity or speed in which they are generated, the lower the veracity of said data, therefore the data will have to be validated and cleaned before being processed to be able to draw valuable conclusions that serve, among other uses, to know customers in depth, predict possible events, detect problems, etc.
Just as important as obtaining the data is how to process them correctly and to that end, the way in which they are displayed plays a very important role. We must look for tools that adapt to the volume of data and group them, whenever possible, to facilitate their analysis graphically or in dashboard mode.
The value of the data is given by the information that is extracted from it, which can be converted into knowledge that better supports decision-making more quickly and effectively. But we must bear in mind that the data alone has no value and it will always be necessary to process and analyze it to extract the information that is needed in each case.
A direct value is how to monetize that data, for example, by helping the CMO better understand customers and find techniques to retain them.
Analyzing data can have a very positive impact on organizations by improving their services or products, reducing costs, increasing efficiency… because thanks to identifying behavior patterns, trends or other useful data, more precise decisions can be made.
If you are thinking about improving your decision-making by implementing big data, contact us!
