ITU agrees on standard for measuring big data

An international standard for measuring big data has been confirmed by the International Telecommunications Union, (ITU).

The standard details into account the requirements, capabilities and uses cases of cloud-based Big Data as well a high-level ‘system context’ view and its relationships with other entities.

According to the ITU, the concept provides an effective, scalable solution to deal with growing volumes of data in uncovering patterns or other information capable of making data manageable and profitable.

“New frontiers in ICT innovation are coming within reach, thanks to advances in data collection and analysis,” said Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary-General.

Because achieving efficient analysis of data within required timeframes poses a significant challenge, the new technologies of Big Data is expected to address the field.

While datasets are being generated so fast and becoming bigger and more complex, the traditional approaches to processing it are proving inadequate.

According to Chaesub Lee, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, the new ITU standard will provide an internationally agreed fundamentals of cloud-based Big Data.

“It will build cohesion in the terminology used to describe cloud-based Big Data and offer a common basis for the development of Big Data services and supporting technical standards,” he said.

Advances in information and communication technology (ICT) are enabling masses of data to be generated, transmitted and stored, and this explosive growth is fast increasing.