4.4.3 The three Vs

• Big data


  Sometimes defined using three criteria, called the three Vs, originally laid out in 2001 by the data analyst Doug Laney
• Volume


  • Very large amounts of data need to be processed - in the case of Xoom, it is all transactions passing through their systems
• Velocity


  • There is a relentless demand for data to be acquired and processed at an ever-increasing pace. For Xoom, velocity is crucial - if they can identify fraud quickly, customers are less likely to lose money and fraudsters have less time to cover their tracks, making identification easier
• Variety


  • The data being acquired can take any form - not just numeric or textual data, but also video, audio, social media connections and so on. Variety requires us to consider another difference between big data and the data we have previously stored in databases
• Google Maps


  • Lets you view traffic flows with roads colour-coded from green (smoothly flowing traffic) to red (heavy congestion). These colours are generated by tracking the movements of tens of thousands of Android phones whose users have enabled location services such as GPS or Wi-Fi tracking. Participating phones anonymously report their positions every few seconds, from which Google can determine their location, direction and speed
• YouTube


  • Represents a big data project in terms of the two Vs of Volume and Velocity