Big Mines, Bigger Data

Big data- everyone seems to be talking about it, but what is it really? More importantly, how will big data change the way we mine? Where is it from, how do we process it and what happens to the results?

What is big data?

Big data is a broad term for data sets so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate. Challenges include analysis, capturing, data curation, searching, sharing, storage, transfer, visualization, querying and information privacy. Doug Laney (2001) defined big data as three-dimensional, increasing volume (amount of data), velocity (speed of data in and out) and variety (range of data types and sources). Successfully harnessing big data typically requires various physical and/or virtual machines working together in an integrated manner to manage and process the data in an acceptable amount of time.