In the vast universe of IT, data is categorized as being either
structured or unstructured, from a macro perspective. Generation
of unstructured data is orders of magnitude higher than that
generated in structured formats, and this poses major challenges
in terms of storage and processing and analytics. Such large
amounts of data collectively form what is known as big data, the
handling of which is usually beyond the capability of
traditional relational database management systems (RDBMS). As
RDBMS has been the preferred method for storing, warehousing,
and analyzing structured data, the industry has matured in the
analysis of mainly structured data. Ignoring unstructured data
is inadvisable, as effective analytics is today a key business
differentiator. Organizations are exploring all possible sources
of data to develop intelligent big data analytics systems that
can provide deeper insights for informed decision making.
Technologies such as Hadoop and specialized non-relational
databases such as columnar dat