The very name-"big data"-implies more data than a typical storage platform can handle. So where exactly does this leave the ever-vigilant CIO? With a multitude of decisions to make and very little information to go by.

However, wading through the storage options for big data does not have to be an impossible journey. It all comes down to combining some basic understanding of the challenge with a little common sense and a sprinkle of budgetary constraint.

First of all, it is important to understand how big data differs from other forms of data and how the associated technologies (mostly analytics applications) work with it. In itself, big data is a generic term that simply means that there is too much data to deal with using standard storage technologies. However, there is much more to it than that-big data can consist of terabytes (or even petabytes) of information that can be a combination of structured data (databases, logs, SQL and so) and unstructured (social media posts, sensors, multimedia) data elements. What's more, most of that data can lack indexes or other organizational structures, and may consist of many different file types.

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Keywords: Network Design, Business Process Management, Business Intelligence & Analytics, Technology, Business Strategy Alignment, Global Supply Chain Management, Data Warehouse Management