Big Data: A Global Overview

More and more, society is learning how to live in a digital world that is becoming engulfed in data. Companies and organizations need to manage and deal with their data growth in a way that compliments the data getting bigger, faster and exponentially more voluminous. They must also learn to deal with data in new and different unstructured forms. This phenomenon is called Big Data. This chapter aims to present other definitions for Big Data, as well as technologies, analysis techniques, issues, challenges and trends related to Big Data. It also looks at the role and profile of the Data Scientist, in reference to functionality, academic background and required skills. The result is a global overview of what Big Data is, and how this new form is leading the world towards a new way of social construction, consumption and processes. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019.