Because the most pertinent and useful data tends to be unstructured, businesses look to applications like SQL 2012 for meaningful analysis. Structured data is data of a homogeneous nature that can be easily stored in an RDBMS. Unstructured data takes on many forms, including email, word processing documents, audio, PowerPoint presentations, photos, and numerous others.
Even though these files may sometimes be organized in a RDBMS, the actual content within the files is not. It is possible to organize a host of emails by sender, data, etc., but it is not possible to execute a query about their content because all unstructured data must be classified as either bitmap objects or textual objects.
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Most successful businesses consider finding a way to analyze this data an integral part of performance optimization. Tasks like identifying customer complaints, identifying insurance fraud, and benchmarking marketing campaigns become almost impossible without it. While more difficult to analyze, unstructured data forms between 60 and 80 percent of all data within most organizations. Semi-structured data is often included in these totals because both types are handled similarly when transformed into a structured data set for analysis.
The challenge of mining unstructured data lays both in its potential for size and its lack of identifiable structure. RDBMSs cannot present the data in any meaningful form, so the need to make unstructured data usable led to platforms like Hadoop and Cloudera. Not coincidentally, SQL 2012 features full Hadoop integration. Hadoop is a distributed database management system (DDBMS) designed to both store and analyze exceptionally large amounts of unstructured data, also known as Big Data.
Though not all unstructured data can be classified as Big Data, Big Data is almost always unstructured. Hadoop’s integration into SQL 2012 means SQL will make heavy use of Hadoop’s MapReduce to store, analyze, and present widely divergent data sets. In addition, Microsoft aims to address two of the chief complaints against MapReduce: prolonged query times and a difficult interface.
Microsoft has partnered with Cloudera and Hortonworks to accelerate MapReduce’s operation, and the use of Hadoop Connectors for SQL Server will permit SQL’s more user-friendly interface to aid analysis of unstructured data. In addition, SQL 2012 includes an open database connectivity (ODBC) driver for Hive so that all Windows applications can run queries within the Hive data warehouse. An Excel Hive Add-in also allows users to transfer data directly from Hive into PowerPivot or Excel.
Unstructured data forms the majority of data, and BI solutions require meaningful analysis of widely divergent data sets to succeed. SQL 2012 and Hadoop complement each other’s strengths while minimizing their weaknesses, giving organizations a means to make sound business decisions rooted in solid data.
For more information about big data management and SQL 2012 integration services, visit Magenic who have been providing innovative custom software developmentto meet unique business challenges for some of the most recognized companies and organizations in the nation.
Faizan Ahmad
About the Author:
This article is posted by Faizan who is the Author and Founder of TechSenser. He is a Professional Blogger from India and a passionate writer about Technology, Gadgets, How-to-Guides, etc. You can connect him on Google+.
This article is posted by Faizan who is the Author and Founder of TechSenser. He is a Professional Blogger from India and a passionate writer about Technology, Gadgets, How-to-Guides, etc. You can connect him on Google+.
