Data Modeling and Data Analytics: A Survey from a Big Data Perspective

Abstract

These last years we have been witnessing a tremendous growth in the volume and availability of data. This fact results primarily from the emergence of a multitude of sources (e.g. computers, mobile devices, sensors or social networks) that are continuously producing either structured, semi-structured or unstructured data. Database Management Systems and Data Warehouses are no longer the only technologies used to store and analyze datasets, namely due to the volume and complex structure of nowadays data that degrade their performance and scalability. Big Data is one of the recent challenges, since it implies new requirements in terms of data storage, processing and visualization. Despite that, analyzing properly Big Data can constitute great advantages because it allows discovering patterns and correlations in datasets. Users can use this processed information to gain deeper insights and to get business advantages. Thus, data modeling and data analytics are evolved in a way that we are able to process huge amounts of data without compromising performance and availability, but instead by “relaxing” the usual ACID properties. This paper provides a broad view and discussion of the current state of this subject with a particular focus on data modeling and data analytics, describing and clarifying the main differences between the three main approaches in what concerns these aspects, namely: operational databases, decision support databases and Big Data technologies.