The lack of a predefined structure makes data mining tricky, and developing best practices on how to handle data sources like rich media, blogs, ... icon-arrow-down-xplenty Product ETL CDC PerformanceMonitoring APIServices Solutions Customer360 DataSecurity DataIngestion ReverseETL BusinessIntelligence DataScienceTeam SalesforceTeam EngineeringTeam DataTeam SaaS SaaS Media&Entertainment Travel E-learning Healthcare Integrations Resources Customers Webinars BooksandGuides Documentation Blog Tel+1(888)8846405 SignIn GetStarted SignIn GetStarted StructuredvsUnstructuredData:5KeyDifferences ByMarkSmallcombe BigData January03,2022 StructuredvsUnstructuredData:5KeyDifferences Structureddataisclearlydefinedandsearchabletypesofdata,whileunstructureddataisusuallystoredinitsnativeformat. Structureddataisquantitative,whileunstructureddataisqualitative. Structureddataisoftenstoredindatawarehouses,whileunstructureddataisstoredindatalakes. Structureddataiseasytosearchandanalyze,whileunstructureddatarequiresmoreworktoprocessandunderstand. Structureddataexistsinpredefinedformats,whileunstructureddataisinavarietyofformats. Dataisfundamentaltobusinessdecisions.Acompany'sabilitytogathertherightdata,interpretit,andactonthoseinsightsisoftenwhatwilldetermineitslevelofsuccess.Buttheamountofdataaccessibletocompaniesiseverincreasing,asarethedifferentkindsofdataavailable.Businessdatacomesinawidevarietyofformats,fromstrictlyformedrelationaldatabasestoyourlasttweet.Allofthisdata,inallitsdifferentformats,canbedividedintotwomaincategories:structureddataandunstructureddata. Structureddataisfairlystraightforwardtodealwith,whereassemi-structuredandunstructureddataaremorecomplexandhardertoorganizeandextract.Datainallitsformsishighlyvaluabletoanyenterpriseandlearninghowtohandledataefficientlyhelpsbusinessesminimizeerrorsandincreaseproductivity. Inthisarticle,we'lltakeacloserlookattheseconceptsandthedifferencesbetweenthem. EnjoyingThisArticle? ReceivegreatcontentweeklywiththeIntegrate.ioNewsletter! GETSTARTED TableofContents WhatisStructuredData? WhatisUnstructuredData? WhatisSemistructuredData? StructuredvsUnstructuredData:5KeyDifferences TheCostofUnstructuredDataProcessing HowIntegrate.ioCanHelp StructuredvsUnstructuredData:5KeyDifferences TheCostofUnstructuredDataProcessing Conclusion WhatisStructuredData? Thetermstructureddatareferstodatathatresidesinafixedfieldwithinafileorrecord.Structureddataistypicallystoredinarelationaldatabase(RDBMS).Itcanconsistofnumbersandtext,andsourcingcanhappenautomaticallyormanually,aslongasit'swithinanRDBMSstructure.Itdependsonthecreationofadatamodel,definingwhattypesofdatatoincludeandhowtostoreandprocessit. TheprogramminglanguageusedforstructureddataisSQL(StructuredQueryLanguage).DevelopedbyIBMin 1974, SQLhandlesrelationaldatabases.Typicalexamplesofstructureddataarenames,addresses,creditcardnumbers,geolocation,andsoon. WhatisUnstructuredData? Unstructureddataismoreorlessallthedatathatisnotstructured.Eventhoughunstructureddatamayhaveanative,internalstructure,it'snotstructuredinapredefinedway.Thereisnodatamodel;thedataisstoredinitsnativeformat. Typicalexamplesofunstructureddataarerichmedia,text,socialmediaactivity,surveillanceimagery,andsoon. Theamountofunstructureddataismuchlargerthanthatofstructureddata.Unstructureddatamakesupawhopping80%ormoreofallenterprisedata,andthepercentagekeepsgrowing.Thismeansthatcompaniesnottakingunstructureddataintoaccountaremissingoutonalotofvaluablebusinessintelligence. WhatisSemistructuredData? Semistructureddataisathirdcategorythatfallssomewherebetweentheothertwo.It'satypeofstructureddatathatdoesnotfitintotheformalstructureofarelationaldatabase.Butwhilenotmatchingthedescriptionofstructureddataentirely,itstillemploystaggingsystemsorother identifiable markers,separatingdifferentelementsandenablingsearch.Sometimes,thisisreferredtoasdatawithaself-describingstructure. Atypicalexampleofsemistructureddataissmartphonephotos.Everyphototakenwithasmartphonecontainsunstructuredimagecontentaswellasthetaggedtime,location,andotheridentifiable(andstructured)information.Semi-structureddataformatsincludeJSON,CSV,andXMLfiletypes. IntegrateyourDataWarehousetoday Turnyourdatawarehouseintoadataplatformthatpowersallcompanydecisionmakingandoperationalsystems. GetStarted 7-daytrial•Nocreditcardrequired StructuredvsUnstructuredData:5KeyDifferences 1)DefinedvsUndefinedData Structureddataisclearlydefinedtypesofdatainastructure.Whileunstructureddataisusuallystoredinitsnativeformat,structureddatalivesinrowsandcolumnsandcanbemappedintopre-definedfields. Unlikestructureddata,whichisorganizedandeasytoaccessinrelationaldatabases,unstructureddatadoesnothaveapredefineddatamodel andisconsideredundefined. 2)QualitativevsQuantitativeData Structureddataisoftenquantitativedata,meaningitusuallyconsistsofhardnumbersorthingsthatcanbecounted.Methodsforanalysisincluderegression(topredictrelationshipsbetweenvariables);classification(toestimateprobability);andclusteringofdata(basedondifferentattributes). Unstructureddata,ontheotherhand,isoftencategorizedasqualitativedata,andcannotbeprocessedandanalyzedusingconventionaltoolsandmethods.Inabusinesscontext,qualitativedatacan,forexample,comefromcustomersurveys,interviews,andsocialmediainteractions.Extractinginsightsfromqualitativedatarequiresadvancedanalyticstechniqueslikedatamininganddatastacking. 3)StorageinDataHousesvsDataLakes Structureddataisoftenstoredindatawarehouses,whileunstructureddataisstoredindatalakes.Adatawarehouseisanendpointforthedata’sjourneythroughanETLpipeline.Adatalake,ontheotherhand,isasortofalmostlimitlessrepositorywheredataisstoredinitsoriginalformatorafterundergoingabasic“cleaning”process. Bothhavethepotentialforclouduse.Structureddatarequireslessstoragespace,whileunstructureddatarequiresmore.Forexample,evenatinyimagetakesupmorespacethanmanypagesoftext. Asfordatabases,structureddataisusuallystoredinarelationaldatabase(RDBMS),whilethebestfitforunstructureddatainsteadisso-callednon-relational,orNoSQLdatabases. 4)EaseofAnalysis Oneofthemostsignificantdifferencesbetweenstructuredandunstructureddataishowwellitlendsitselftoanalysis.Structureddataiseasytosearch,bothforhumansandforalgorithms.Unstructureddata,ontheotherhand,isintrinsicallymoredifficulttosearchandrequiresprocessingtobecomeunderstandable.It'schallengingtodeconstructsinceitlacksapredefineddatamodelandhencedoesn'tfitininrelationaldatabases. Whilethereareawidearrayofsophisticatedanalyticstoolsforstructureddata,mostanalyticaltoolssuchas NLPandML forminingandarrangingunstructureddataarestillinthedevelopingphase.Thelackofapredefinedstructuremakesdataminingtricky,anddevelopingbestpracticesonhowtohandledatasourceslikerichmedia,blogs,socialmediadata,andcustomercommunicationisachallenge. 5)PredefinedFormatvsVarietyofFormats Themostcommonformatforstructureddataistextandnumbers.Structureddatahasbeendefinedbeforehandinadatamodel. Unstructureddata,ontheotherhand,comesinavarietyofshapesandsizes.Itcanconsistofeverythingfromaudio,video,andimagerytoemailandsensordata.Thereisnodatamodelfortheunstructureddata;itisstorednativelyorinadatalakethatdoesn'trequireanytransformation. InConclusion Therearemainlytwocategoriesofdata:structureddataandunstructured.Structureddataresidesinpredefinedmodelsandformats,whileunstructureddataisstoredinitsnativeformatuntilit'sextractedforanalysis.Thereisalsosemistructureddata;acategorythatfallsbetweentheothertwo.Itreferstodatathathassomekindoftaggingstructurebutstilldoesn'tfitintotheformalstructureofarelationaldatabase. Inthisarticle,we'velookedatfiveimportantdifferencesbetweenstructuredandunstructureddata: DefinedvsUndefinedData QualitativevsQuantitativeData StorageinDataHousesvsDataLakes EasyvsHardtoAnalyze PredefinedFormatvsaVarietyofFormats WhilestructureddataismucheasierforBigDataprogramstoprocess,it'sparamountnottoforgetaboutunstructuredandsemistructureddata.Analyzingunstructureddatadoespresentamoresignificantchallenge.Butconsideringthatmorethan80%ofallenterprisedataadherestothiscategory,andisgrowingatarateof55%-65%peryear, leavingitoutwillcreatelargeblindspots.Luckily,astechnologyevolves,theinsightsthatarehiddeninunstructureddataarebecomingmoreaccessible. TheCostofUnstructuredDataProcessing Mostbusinesseskeepabackupoftheirdata.Currentestimatesshowthatbusiness-relateddataisincreasingatarateof30%everyyear,thisaddsuptoaround80%-90%ifyouaccountforallthebackups.Mostofthisis‘cool’data(datathathasnotbeenaccessedfor30days)yetitclogsupexpensiveharddrivestorageandhasanimpactonfinancialbudgets. Thetroublethatmostcompanieshaveismanagingtheirunstructureddatacost-effectively.Thisisbecauseunstructureddataisdifficulttoindex,andtraditionaldatabasesarenotsufficient.XML,key-value,andJSONdatabasesarenotdesignedtoanalyzesuchdata.Theprocessofextracting,analyzing,andprocessingunstructureddataisusuallyoutsourcedtoasecondarysystem.Movingdataaroundmakesmorecopies,takesupevenmorestorage,andisnotfinanciallysensible. Somecompanieschoosenottomanageunstructureddataatall.Instead,theyexpandthecapacityofprimarystoragesystemsratherthanhandleunstructureddata.Butthisismethodisproblematicandcomesatacost. Firstly,onceprimarystorageisconsumedbyunstructureddatathereisnoroomfordataofanyotherkind.Primarystoragecanbethemostexpensive,itusuallyrequiresflashSSmediawhichischargedaccordingtosize. Secondly,storageinfrastructuremustberefreshedeverythreetofiveyearsandneedstoincludeallofthecoolunstructureddata,includingmigrationcosts.Thisiswithoutconsideringthesecondarystoragethatisrequiredtosupportthebackups. Thirdly,globalprivacylawsrequirefirmstoknowexactlywhatisbeingheldwithintheirunstructureddata,andwhetheritcontainsprivateinformation.Privacylawsrequireabsolutecompliance,withsignificantfinesforthosewhofailtomeettheirstandards. Optimizingperformanceandlowingcostsarepossibleifunstructureddataismanagedefficiently.Optingforacloud,tape,orsecondarystoragesolutionmakesmanagingunstructureddataeasier. HowIntegrate.ioCanHelp EnjoyingThisArticle? ReceivegreatcontentweeklywiththeIntegrate.ioNewsletter! GETSTARTED Webelievethateveryoneshouldbeabletomanagetheirdata,regardlessoftheirtechexperience.That'swhyweofferno-codeandlow-codeoptionssothatyoucanaddIntegrate.iotoyourdatasolutionstackwithease. Integrate.iooffersacompletetoolkitforbuildingETLdatapipelines,makingiteasytoimplementanETLorELTsolutiontoextractunstructureddataandtransformitintotheformatyouneed. WithIntegrate.io'sworkflowengine,youcanorchestrateandscheduledatapipelines.Withourrichexpressionlanguage,youcanimplementcomplexdatapreparationfunctionsandintegratethemwithotherdatarepositoriesandapplications. WithIntegrate.io,youcanspendlesstimeprocessingyourdata,soyouhavemoretimeforanalyzingit.Scheduleademobyvisiting ourCalendlylink andlearnhowourlow-codeplatformcanhelpyouturnyourunstructureddataintovaluablebusinessintelligence! BigData Youmightalsolikeourotherposts... BigData February25,2022 WhatIstheDifferenceBetweenAWSRedshiftandRDS? ThisarticlewillhelpyouunderstandthedifferencesbetweenAWSRedshiftandRDSandhowIntegrate.iocanhelpmanageyourdataworkflow. MarkSmallcombe BigData February24,2022 HowDoesAWSRedshiftWork? ThisguidewillshowyouhowAWSRedshiftworkstogiveyouinsightsintoyourmostvaluableasset. DonalTobin BigData February23,2022 IsAWSRedshiftaDatabase?HowDoesItWork? IsAWSRedshiftadatabase?Whyshouldyouaddittoyourtechstack?Integrate.ioexploresthesciencebehindthisplatform. 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