Emerging trends and technologies in big data processing

Big Data encompasses large volume of complex structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data, which is beyond the processing capabilities of conventional databases. The processing and analysis of Big Data now play a central role in decision making, forecasting, business analysis, product development, customer experience, and loyalty, to name but a few. In this paper, we examine the distinguishing characteristics of Big Data along the lines of the 3Vs: variety, volume, and velocity. Accordingly, the paper provides an insight into the main processing paradigms in relation to the 3Vs. It defines a lifecycle for Big Data processing and classifies various available tools and technologies in terms of the lifecycle phases of Big Data, which include data acquisition, data storage, data analysis, and data exploitation of the results. This paper is first of its kind that reviews and analyzes current trends and technologies in relation to the characteristics, evolution, and processing of Big Data. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.