Big data concepts

Let me start this section by giving the Wikipedia definition for Big Data:

Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing applications are inadequate to deal with them. The term "big data" often refers simply to the use of predictive analytics, user behaviour analytics, or certain other advanced data analytics methods that extract value from data, and seldom to a particular size of data set.

- Wikipedia

Let's try explaining, the two sentences that are given in the preceding Wikipedia definition. Earlier, big data referred to any data that is large and complex in nature. There isn't any specified size of data for it to be called big data. This data was considered so big that conventional data processing applications found it difficult to use it in a meaningful fashion. In the last decade or so, many technologies have evolved in this space in order to analyze such big data in the enterprise. Nowadays, the term big data is used to refer to any sort of analysis method that can comprehend and extract this complex data and make valuable use of it in the enterprise.