What kind of datasets are considered big data?

The uses of big data are almost as varied as they are large. Prominent examples you're probably already familiar with include: social media networks analyzing their members' data to learn more about them and connect them with content and advertising relevant to their interests, or search engines looking at the relationship between queries and results to give better answers to users' questions.

But the potential uses go much further! Two of the largest sources of data in large quantities are transactional data, including everything from stock prices to bank data to individual merchants' purchase histories; and sensor data, much of it coming from what is commonly referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT). This sensor data might be anything from measurements taken from robots on an automaker's manufacturing line, to location data on a cellphone network, to instantaneous electrical usage data in homes and businesses, to passenger boarding information taken on a transit system.

By analyzing this data, organizations can learn trends about the data they are measuring, as well as the people generating this data. The hope for this big data analysis is to provide more customized service and increased efficiencies in whatever industry the data is collected from.