The Rise of Data
Learn why data is the core of distributed systems.
Data intensity–the new norm
Over the last two decades, we have seen “the rise of data”.
Modern systems are data-centric to the point that we take them for granted. In reality, our use of data has changed drastically over time.
Think of phone applications, websites, software,anything you use on a day to day basis. These are reading and writing data all the time in their systems.
This might be very obvious to you. A system has to handle data, either actively or passively. What’s so rising about it? – you might ask. What has changed over the past few decades is the intensity of data in all kinds of systems.
In short, modern systems are data-driven. These systems collect data, process it, and generate useful insights from the data to drive business and growth.
Let’s discuss these steps—collection, storage, processing, and insight generation.
Data collection
Modern systems collect data from their users. Not all data is the same in type and value. There are two categories we’d like to mention.
Personal data
Personal data is data that is personal and specific to users. For example, on Facebook, generally whatever you have on your profile is personal data, such as your name, date of birth, credit card credentials, places you have been, the food you like, movies you ...