Big data are large sets of data that due to its size or type cannot be captured, managed or processed by traditional databases. Big data usually have at least one of these characteristics: high variety, high velocity, or high volume.

You can collect big data from the most varied places: from the web, social media, log files, video or audio, sensors, transactional applications, and devices. The most part of big data is generated on a very large scale and in real time.

So, in order to collect, organize and analyze the big data, you need to use big data analytics.

Big data analytics main goal is to help companies discover any patterns they might be missing that can help their businesses. Either by answering specific questions, as it can also help to improve operations, increase efficiency, improve risk management, boost sales, and even improve your customer service.

For many companies, big data analysis is a complete challenge. Dealing with a great amount of data, data in different formats, data that can be gathered inside the company but also outside, it's not easy. This is why companies use specific applications and software tools for data mining, forecasting, predictive analysis, data optimization, and text mining.
Companies now use a lot more data than they used just 5 or 10 years ago. And when you want to do big data analysis, you need the data to be beautiful, but mostly, you want the data to be useful, and to show multiple dimensions.

And this is where visualization comes in. With big data visualization, you not only look at the data, but you can also interact with it. The big data visualization needs to be easy to use, meaningful, understandable, approachable, and well-designed.

With more and more data needed to be analyzed, technology evolves, just like big data visualization tools evolve. They need to be faster, more intuitive, more interactive.

Here are some of the visualization tools for big data you can use:

Data analysis isn't something new. Companies have been analyzing data for many years, and if once it was all done manually, you now have computers and powerful tools and software to help you.

Organization heads need to be on top of everything that happens that may affect their businesses. Either from their client's side, partners, suppliers, and even competitors. And to do that you need data to analyze so you can optimize your business process.

The amount of data that you have available today is huge. But beyond it, by analyzing it, you'll discover some patterns or trends that will give you a great insight into your business. And this is exactly what will make your business thrive. By identifying these patterns and trends, you'll be able to make much more effective decisions.

But even collecting such an amount of data is not easy. The information is spread across different servers, the data formats are different and it would be humanly impossible to do it by hand. In the old days, companies usually used a simple database software that would allow them to gather all the data and process it. Nowadays, with the information overload, it's virtually impossible to do so.

Big Data is the process that includes gathering, storing, processing, analyzing and also visualizing this huge amount of information.

Below you can find some companies that provide big data tools:

One of the most well-known big data tools is IBM. IBM is built on Hadoop , making it extremely affordable, fast, and free.
Companies can use this tool to gather, manage, and analyze, both structured and unstructured, data. They also allow you to gather and analyze real-time data, which is a great feature for many companies. And much better than just seeing a report filled with data is to be able to visualize the data . IBM is also one of the top visualization tools for big data.

Microsoft warehouse solutions can handle all kinds of data, from the most varied sizes, with great performance. You can use data sources that include videos, devices, RFID, mobile, social, web logs, sensors, click streams, and much more. By using the latest technology, Microsoft can give you almost instant results from your queries. What used to take hours, is almost available now in real-time. ​

Raw data is extremely boring and people have to go through a lot of hassle when analyzing them. That’s where data visualization tools come into play. Data visualization is powerful enough to deliver data in a simple form, where everybody can digest without any difficulty. The visualized data can be analyzed faster and you will be able to recognize all the interesting patterns. However, you need to get hold of a reliable data visualization tool in order to experience all the benefits that are associated with this technique. Herewith we list some of the best free data visualization tools that are available in 2016.

Datawrapper data visualization was created by a journalism organization located in Europe. They initially made it with the intention of making data visualization easy for news institutes. It has a web based graphical user interface and people will be able to create their own graphs within just four steps. This simplicity made it a popular application within a short period of time and it motivated the developer to release the tool for people who are in need of a convenient data visualization tool.

If you are looking for the best way to look at your data, there are many data visualization software that can help you. Here are the best ones that you can start using today:

* Sisence is a data visualization software specially designed for big and complex data. They allow you to gather the data from multiple sources with a simple drag & drop system. The software is very intuitive which becomes pretty handy since you're using a big volume of data. Then, to visualize the data itself, you use an interactive web dashboard where you can see if from a lot of different perspectives. With Sisence, you have the power of different tools combined in only one data visualization software.

Open source means that software has been made available for modification and use with no charge. Opensource.com published 8 excellent open source data visualization tools in June. The first one mentioned is Datawrapper where you can create charts and maps in just four steps. It can be downloaded or cloud hosted (paid service). It’s a web based graphics user interface(GUI).

The next open source data visualization tool is Chart.js . It provides technical and precise control over the charts but is not user friendly for those not wanting to mess with code. It is HTML5 based and boasts six chart types including interactive. Similarly named, Charted , is a minimal charting tool. The user provides a link to the data and a chart is not only produced, but updated every 30 minutes. No data is stored by this online tool. D3 (data driven documents), a JavaScript library, uses HTML, SVG, and CSS. The user may need to write code and it may not be for everyone. The fifth open source data visualization tool listed by Opensource is Dygraphs . It is also a JavaScript library that can process big data and produces interactive charts. Although it may require some code writing, it is described as easier to use than open source data visualization tools.

Additionally, Raw is a D3.js library that is web based. It is user friendly, requiring users only to paste their data. This tool allows customization and can be exported as SVG or PNG formats. Timeline is available in 40 languages for building, well, timelines. The timelines work on any site or blog and can be interactive. Finally, Leaflet is another JavaScript library for creating interactive maps that are mobile-friendly. Leaflet works with most programs and can be extended with plugins. It also takes advantage of HTML5 and CSS3.

Tableau states that they are “on a mission to help people see and understand data.” The company offers a variety of software options from on-site to online. They advertise faster analytics of any data amount, ease of use, smart dashboards, sharing, and automatic updating. A free trial is available, too, all of which places it among the best data visualization software.

Domo claims to save users thousands of hours with automated reports and visualization, easy access to 100’s of data sources, and the ability to access data anywhere and on any device. Doma made the best data visualization list for many reasons including its ability to collect data from a variety of sources in real time.

Zoho offers a variety of services including data visualization. With a drop-and-drag interface, Zoho reports being able to create a wide variety of charts, tables, reports and dashboards. The Zoho site says its creations can be embedded anywhere and shared easily. Those interested can take a tour or sign up for free. Zoho also offers help creating forms, survey collection, ad free email, social media analysis, document management and much more, winning it a spot on the best data visualization list.

GoodData goes beyond business intelligence to deliver insight and advanced analytics for organizations. This cloud analytic platform makes the best data visualization list for offering big data ready ETL/ELT, warehousing for data, innovative analysis and visualization and self-service data detection. Always available, the site offers a free trial at sign-up.

Pentaho describes itself as a “leading data integration and business analytics company” capable of taking on data of any size. They are among the best data visualization software for helping companies understand and use their data including big data and Internet of things. Data visualizations are tailor-made to meet the needs of each business.

Data visualization software enables data to be transformed into a graph or other visual aid. These visualizations can vary from graphs to charts to geographical maps. Many are interactive or present real-time data, according to Software Advice . The data visualized allows readers to analyze information, insight and recognize trends all at one, using everyone’s time more efficiently because less time is used interpreting numbers.

Although data visualization software is easy to find, choosing the right one for your personal or business needs can become more complicated. One thing to consider is if you want software on your system or a web-based program. Web-based systems provide an easy of use at any location with internet access but most require a monthly subscription fee. Further, make sure the vendor offers Mobile Business Intelligence (Mobile BI) if you plan to use it on a mobile device. Mobile BI software can provide a lower cost, less IT needs and are faster to implement.

Other concerns, according to Technology Advice , include making sure the software is compatible with your data source. Make sure the data visualization software can create the type of graphic visualization necessary whether it is a graphic, treemap, infographic or three-dimensional scatter plot. In addition, researching the software user-friendliness is important if non-technical users will be operating the software. It should have a clean, easy to understand interface.

Many data visualization tools can be found on the web. Some will cost you a pretty penny but many are free. One free data visualization tool is the open-source javascript library Leaflet . Full of mobile friendly interactive maps, Leaflet describes itself as “designed with simplicity, performance and usability in mind.” The web site is complete with tutorials, links to plugins to expand its basic abilities, and download page for various versions.

Google Developers Charts offers a variety of charts in a gallery and has a quick start guide. With 28 types of charts, maps, word trees and timelines, users can find the best way to display their information using this totally free data visualization tool.

Another free, open source data visualization javascript library for interactive map-making is Polymaps . This site offers data visualization techniques including spherical Mercator tile format, multi-zoom datasets over maps and tiled vector data which makes it possible to use on country, state, city, or neighborhood levels.

Small and specifically designed for vector graphics, Raphaël is a javascript library designed to make cross-browser compatibility easy. The site provides animation demos and free icons but is more hands-on that other tools.

Other free data visualization tools and techniques available on the web can be found in The 37 best tools for Data Visualization .