4 ms·

I still don't understand big data. Is it machine learning + analytics?

mwetzler 14y ago
I think of it as "trying to capture massive amounts of data and somehow get useful information out of it". This is pretty good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data
mdellabitta 14y ago
It's having a dataset that's large enough and/or complex enough that it can't really be processed on a single machine in a reasonable amount of time.
pnathan 14y ago
No, it's not, although it seems to usually be linked with analytics. It's also things like sampling the power grid, photos from astronomy, and genomic data. But unfortunately those sorts of things don't seem to get the same kind of buzz.
paulgb 14y ago
When the press uses it, it means "data".
TallGuyShort 14y ago
Although I believe "big" usually refers to the size of the dataset, I originally heard the term used in the same sense as "Big Oil" - and the implication was that as companies collected massive amounts of data and figured out how to profit from it, "data" was going to become the next high-value commodity. edit: Although to answer your actual question, it's a bit like "cloud computing" - it probably refers to very scalable systems with an emphasis on reading, writing, and processing large amounts of data - but really it's a bit of a marketing term :)
- mnicole 14y ago
  To branch off of your comment, which is the best description of it, I think it should be noted that for the past two years this subject has been the most nominated topic across all of our events for both information and security officers (the company I work for empowers F1000 C-suite executives to come up with relevant material for their peers to discuss annually). For companies that are inundated with web analytics, feedback they're getting from and trends they're seeing on social media to sales numbers and any other quantifiable data, they're trying to tie it all together so they can make changes or create new opportunities for their markets.
  - hayksaakian 14y ago
    Oh OK,that makes more sense. Big data is actually the problem then, not the solution? Meaning there's too much disparate data, and now we can try to bring it together.
    - mnicole 14y ago
      Yup!
kirinan 14y ago
Some big data is machine learning, a lot however is running analytics via software like Hadoop (map reduce) to gleam results from the data. Examples of both would be calculating shipping times based on previous shipping times. If you had enough data, you could predict with analytics how long a shipping process would take. You can then use machine learning to get more and more accurate results.
dbecker 14y ago
Unfortunately, it's a buzzword that marketers use however is convenient. The most common definition refers to the size of the dataset, but I've heard it used by so-called-experts in reference to some very small datasets.
dkarl 14y ago
Michael Stonebraker's answer is that big data can mean big volume (and small analytics,) big volume and big analytics, big velocity, and/or big variety. The first three aspects fit the general usage on HN, while the fourth is his own addition, I think. He's writing a blog post on each one. The first post explains what he means by each aspect: Intro plus the "big volume, small analytics" case: http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/155468-what-does-big-data-mean/fulltext http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/155468-what-does-big-dat... "Big volume, big analytics": http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/156102-what-does-big-data-mean-part-2/fulltext http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/156102-what-does-big-dat... "Big velocity": http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/157589-what-does-big-data-mean-part-3/fulltext http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/157589-what-does-big-dat... "Big variety": yet to come
elchief 14y ago
It's when you use more than 2 computers to make a chart.

I think of it as "trying to capture massive amounts of data and somehow get useful information out of it". This is pretty good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data

mdellabitta 14y ago

It's having a dataset that's large enough and/or complex enough that it can't really be processed on a single machine in a reasonable amount of time.

pnathan 14y ago

No, it's not, although it seems to usually be linked with analytics. It's also things like sampling the power grid, photos from astronomy, and genomic data. But unfortunately those sorts of things don't seem to get the same kind of buzz.

paulgb 14y ago

When the press uses it, it means "data".

TallGuyShort 14y ago

Although I believe "big" usually refers to the size of the dataset, I originally heard the term used in the same sense as "Big Oil" - and the implication was that as companies collected massive amounts of data and figured out how to profit from it, "data" was going to become the next high-value commodity. edit: Although to answer your actual question, it's a bit like "cloud computing" - it probably refers to very scalable systems with an emphasis on reading, writing, and processing large amounts of data - but really it's a bit of a marketing term :)

mnicole 14y ago
To branch off of your comment, which is the best description of it, I think it should be noted that for the past two years this subject has been the most nominated topic across all of our events for both information and security officers (the company I work for empowers F1000 C-suite executives to come up with relevant material for their peers to discuss annually). For companies that are inundated with web analytics, feedback they're getting from and trends they're seeing on social media to sales numbers and any other quantifiable data, they're trying to tie it all together so they can make changes or create new opportunities for their markets.
- hayksaakian 14y ago
  Oh OK,that makes more sense. Big data is actually the problem then, not the solution? Meaning there's too much disparate data, and now we can try to bring it together.
  - mnicole 14y ago
    Yup!

kirinan 14y ago

Some big data is machine learning, a lot however is running analytics via software like Hadoop (map reduce) to gleam results from the data. Examples of both would be calculating shipping times based on previous shipping times. If you had enough data, you could predict with analytics how long a shipping process would take. You can then use machine learning to get more and more accurate results.

dbecker 14y ago

Unfortunately, it's a buzzword that marketers use however is convenient. The most common definition refers to the size of the dataset, but I've heard it used by so-called-experts in reference to some very small datasets.

dkarl 14y ago

Michael Stonebraker's answer is that big data can mean big volume (and small analytics,) big volume and big analytics, big velocity, and/or big variety. The first three aspects fit the general usage on HN, while the fourth is his own addition, I think. He's writing a blog post on each one. The first post explains what he means by each aspect: Intro plus the "big volume, small analytics" case: http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/155468-what-does-big-data-mean/fulltext http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/155468-what-does-big-dat... "Big volume, big analytics": http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/156102-what-does-big-data-mean-part-2/fulltext http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/156102-what-does-big-dat... "Big velocity": http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/157589-what-does-big-data-mean-part-3/fulltext http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/157589-what-does-big-dat... "Big variety": yet to come

elchief 14y ago

It's when you use more than 2 computers to make a chart.