If you work alongside data on a daily basis, you may have stumbled upon the term unstructured data in the past. It is, in the simplest of terms, defined as data that is not actively managed in a transactional system or a relational database management system. It is present in the form of emails, text files, video files, audio files, social media platforms, blog posts, and open-ended survey responses. To find out everything you should know about unstructured data, continue reading.
It can be accumulated faster
If you require data that must be collected quickly and easily, unstructured data benefits from faster accumulation rates than that of structured data because there is no need to predefine the data beforehand. In the past couple of years, for example, it has been revealed that unstructured data is growing at a rate of between 56% and 65% per year. This can, therefore, lead to greater overall business efficiency with a considerable amount of time saved during the initial data collection process.
It can be stored in its native format
If you are unfamiliar with unstructured data, it may benefit you to know that it can be stored in its native format with the data usually not defined until it is needed. This can allow for a larger pool of use cases due to the purpose of the data being adaptable and can also allow for the quick and easy preparation and analysation of data. If you work alongside various file formats, storing unstructured data in its native format can also allow you to store more file formats as any data stored will not be restricted or limited by a particular format with an unstructured data management platform, such as https://dataloop.ai/platform/data-management/, allowing for the quick and easy visualisation of data.
It requires specialized tools
If you are curious about unstructured data or are already toying with the idea of capitalising on unstructured data within your workplace, you must know that it requires specialised tools to manipulate in addition to expert knowledge, experience, and training. It may be possible to rely on standard tools for the manipulation of structured data but when it comes to unstructured data, there are fewer choices available for data managers with the vast majority of products currently on the market still relatively unheard of or very much in their infancy as unstructured data remains a largely untapped market in the global business world.
If you are interested in unstructured data, there are a number of things you must know before incorporating it into your daily work schedule on a regular basis. It can, for example, be accumulated faster with no need to be predefined beforehand, can be stored in its native format with the data usually not defined until it is needed, and, last but certainly not least, requires specialised tools as opposed to standard tools which are better suited to structured data with a number of products currently on the market still relatively unheard of.
