Big data is fast becoming the heartbeat of social enterprise. With its usefulness in analyzing patterns of behavior of customers through responses in online ads, common keyword searches in search engines and more, whoever acquires the magic of information management has the bigger advantage. The several ambiguities surrounding big data cause confusion. A good example of this is pointing out nuance s between unstructured data and unstructured content.

Jeff Kelly outlines in his blog the parameters that set the wall of differentiation between unstructured data and unstructured content. But, why take time to define these two big data terms? This is because knowing the disparity of the two will lead you to the ideal analytics technology that you need, depending on what data you possess. Unstructured data examples are click-stream data, while your tweets are considered unstructured content. The former having a limited structure, but may not follow the same format. The latter, on the other hand, has no form at all—you tweets could be a combination of numbers, texts, pictures and unfamiliar languages. In purpose, both are used to unveil hidden patterns, but unstructured content involved emotions (emotional patterns, intent and sentiment), and are therefore used by companies to predict customer’s wants, among other intentions.

With minute structural elements, unstructured data emerges as one of the focal points for many enterprises, and has since been identified as a big challenge to current technologies that are in the process of cloud computing adoption. Hadoop is a known technology utilized to identify trends, patterns and predicts user’s behaviour in the future.

The same interests triggered Search Technologies and Attivio to team up to deliver combined search and business intelligence solutions. Another global leader in providing social intelligence services, Teradata Aster taps Mzinga OmniSocial to create the pioneer in online collaborative community for Big Data analytics.

VMware, which just shook the industry with the launch of vSphere 5, is also developing tools to address unstructured data concerns.  Here, Ken McLaughlin noted updates on VMware’s vShield Data Discovery:

“Developed in partnership with RSA, VMware’s new vShield Data Discovery tool identifies unstructured data in virtual environments that’s subject to regulatory compliance laws. It’s part of vShield App, VMware’s hypervisor-based firewall that runs on each vSphere host and fences off sensitive data based on the specific needs of the organization.”

Unstructured data, unstructured content, structured data, semi-structured data—understanding the differences of big data terms will help you gain competitive advantage by making the right decision on what analytics technology to tap. Then data management cost effectiveness soon follows and you’ll find yourself ahead of the curve, peering straight into the future.