#bigdata 6e — How to size the data?
If you have a smartphone or a computer, you should be aware of the storage capacity.
On average, a smartphone has 16, 32 or 64GB of storage. A computer 4, 8 or 16 GB of RAM and 250, 500 GB, or 1TB disks.
If your phone has 64GB of space, it means that 64 x 1,073,741,824 bytes or characters can be stored.
Data measures are scaled using the binary system (base 2) used on computers as the numeric system. So, 2ˆ10 (two raised to power 10) equals 1,024 Bytes.
Let’s know these measures, to get a sense of the volume of data generated in Big Data.
Data Measurement Units:
1 Byte = 8 bits ou 1 Character
1 KiloByte (KB) = 1024 Bytes
1 MegaByte (MB) = 1024 KB
1 GigaByte (GB) = 1024 MB
1 TeraByte (TB) = 1024 GB
1 PetaByte (PB) = 1024 TB
1 ExaByte (EB) = 1024 PB
1 ZettaByte (ZB) = 1024 EB
1 YottaByte (YB) = 1024 ZB
You use measurements daily, such as pounds to weight, meters or miles to distance, and over time will naturally to adapt to these data measures.
Measuring data is a scary process as we will realize that the volume increases exponentially and our devices are not prepared for all this storage, having to resort to so-called “cloud technologies” that we will explain later.
TeraBytes, PetaBytes, ExaBytes e ZettaBytes are the most commonly used units in Big Data.
More information about this article
Article selected from the eBook “Big Data for Executives and Market Professionals.”
eBook in English: Amazon or Apple Store
eBook in Portuguese: Amazon or Apple Store
eBook Web Sites: Portuguese | English
