Big data refers to large sets of data collected from many sources in multiple forms, often in real time. This data may come from social networks, e-commerce websites, user visit records, and many other sources. This data is not a normal data set in the company’s customer relationship management database.
From a technical point of view, the relationship between big data and cloud computing is as inseparable as the front and back of a coin. Big data cannot be processed by a single computer and must adopt a distributed computing architecture. Its feature lies in the mining of massive data, but it must rely on the distributed processing, distributed database, cloud storage and/or virtualization technology of cloud computing. In “The Age of Big Data: The Great Transformation of Life, Work and Thinking” written by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier, big data refers to the use of all data for analysis and processing without shortcuts such as random analysis (sampling surveys). The characteristics of big data are usually called 4V, specifically: volume, velocity, variety, value.
In his book The Third Wave, the famous futurist Alvin Toffler enthusiastically praised big data as “the brilliant movement of the third wave”. The US Internet Data Center pointed out that the data on the Internet will grow by 50% every year and double every two years, and more than 90% of the data in the world has been generated in recent years. In addition, data does not simply refer to the information posted by people on the Internet. There are countless digital sensors on industrial equipment, cars, and electric meters around the world, which measure and transmit changes in location, movement, vibration, temperature, humidity, and even chemical substances in the air at any time, which also generates a huge amount of data information.
Big data is born with the increasingly popular network behavior of human beings. It is collected by relevant departments and enterprises, and contains the real intentions and preferences of data producers, and has non-traditional structure and meaning. “Purifying” useful information from massive data is also a huge challenge for network architecture and data processing capabilities. After several years of criticism, questioning, discussion, and hype, big data has finally ushered in its era. The era of big data has arrived, and it will set off a huge wave of change in many fields. But we must calmly realize that the core of big data is to tap the value hidden in the data for customers, rather than piling up software and hardware. Therefore, research on big data application models and business models in different fields will be the key to the healthy development of the big data industry. We believe that with the overall planning and support of the country, through local governments formulating big data industry development strategies in accordance with local conditions, and through the active participation of domestic and foreign IT leading companies and many innovative companies, the future development prospects of the big data industry will be very broad.
In fact, big data is just a manifestation or feature of the development of the Internet to its current stage. There is no need to deify it or be in awe of it. Against the backdrop of technological innovation represented by cloud computing, these data that were originally difficult to collect and use have become very easy to use. Through continuous innovation in all walks of life, big data will gradually create more value for mankind.