Big Data in the Cloud: Why Cloud Computing Is the Answer to Your Big Data Initiatives

Big data has become indispensable for all the businesses operating today across the globe. In fact, it is driving all the crucial business decisions in the majority of business organizations. Organizations have come to understand the true potential of big data and are using it to measure their performance and to figure out new opportunities for growth. The term big data refers to all the data which is gigantic in size that is collected from a plethora of sources and it can be structured, semi-structured, or unstructured. Big data doesn’t designate any specific quantity but usually refers to data in the petabyte and exabyte range which is collected from different sources. Big data is often characterized by 6 V’s :

• Variety
• Volume
• Variety
• Velocity
• Veracity
• Value

Source: Research Gate

Businesses are interested in big data because they can reveal more patterns and interesting relationships than smaller data sets, with the potential to provide new insights into customer behavior.

WHAT IS BIG DATA IN THE CLOUD :

Making sense of accumulated “big data” to improve business performance and decision-making has become one of the primary opportunities for organizations of all shapes and sizes, but it also has its own impediments. The major problem with big data that most organizations face today is the size of the computing and network infrastructure that is required to build a big data facility. Cloud computing has enabled companies to perform all of their computing work using a virtualized IT infrastructure in a remote location. Cloud computing is a model of computing in which storage, software, and other services are provided as a shared pool of virtualized resources over a network, primarily the internet. All of this makes cloud computing an ideal platform for big data and it is also accessible and affordable to almost any size of enterprise.

PERFECT TOGETHER :

Cloud computing and big data go hand-in-hand a lot of cloud services are performing big data analytics. Big data and cloud computing together allow people with exceptional business ideas but limited resources a chance at business success. Both combined together can yield extraordinary results for organizations. It also allows established businesses to make use of the accumulated data by providing them with infrastructure to store and process the data. Companies use processing, storage, networking, and other computing resources from cloud service providers to analyze big data and to run their information systems. Big data collected can be in either a standard format or a non-standard format. This is where cloud computing comes to the rescue of the companies, it can help standardize the data that is in non-standardized form with the help of artificial intelligence. Without cloud computing companies would’ve found it really difficult to deal with big data as setting up infrastructure for storing and computing big data can be really expensive and also time-consuming. Installing and running a server can take weeks to months. In short, neither of them cloud computing nor big data would exist without the other. Without big data there would not be much use for cloud computing services, likewise, it would’ve been really difficult to collect, process, and store big data without the aid of cloud computing. This is why they are a perfect match for each other.

WHY CLOUD COMPUTING IS THE ANSWER TO BIG DATA :

Big data are produced in much larger quantities and much more rapidly than traditional data. So it is important to have robust software to store, process, and compute the data collected. Cloud computing has ensured that accumulated big data is managed efficiently and effectively as it allows data to be accessed on an as-needed basis from any connected device and location. It has also helped in the advancement of big data by providing networking, storing, and computational capacity. Storing and processing a big volume of data requires fault tolerance, scalability, and availability. Cloud computing delivers all of the above through hardware visualization. One of the biggest advantages of cloud computing is its rapid elasticity.

Computing resources can be rapidly provisioned, increased, or decreased to meet changing user demand. There are various cloud computing models such as

• Private cloud
• Public cloud
• Hybrid cloud

Organizations mostly prefer private cloud over the other two models as it is more flexible and enables companies to retain control over their own IT infrastructure. Most companies today are gravitating towards these private clouds. Cloud computing in the future will gradually shift firms from having a fixed infrastructure capacity towards a more flexible infrastructure.

Scalability is also another notable advantage of having robust cloud computing software as it can help companies store significant amounts of data in a cost-effective way. There is a huge interest in leveraging both cloud computing and big data as they can provide companies with a competitive advantage.

With the help of cloud computing and big data, it is now much easier to start an IT company than ever before. Big data and cloud computing are two things that are interdependent on each other. One would not exist without the existence of another. Both have made life easier for the companies and have revolutionized the way business operates and how decisions are made.

All companies whether small-sized or large-sized must try to leverage both big data and cloud computing to enhance growth and achieve more productivity. Both cloud computing and big data are evolving continuously, so it is safe to say that both can be a perfect combination for a business to grow.