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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Big data and data analytics

A local council is deciding whether its new project to analyse traffic camera feeds, mobile phone location signals and weather reports truly counts as a 'big data' initiative. Which description would best justify that classification?

The best justification is that the data is high in volume, arrives rapidly and comes in diverse formats, needing non-traditional tools to process. These are the core characteristics of big data. Accuracy, spreadsheet size or a single annual source would not make a data set big data.

  1. AThe data sets are held in a spreadsheet with many rows
  2. BThe data is high in volume, arrives rapidly and is in diverse formats, requiring non-traditional tools to processCorrect
  3. CThe data has been audited and found to be completely accurate
  4. DThe data is collected only once a year from a single system

Explanation

Big data is characterised by high volume, velocity and variety, which exceed the capacity of traditional database tools. Accuracy alone, a large spreadsheet, or a single annual source does not meet this definition.

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