Data Types and Cloud Storage Solutions

Which type of data is typically organized in columns and rows and is easy to analyze?

What percentage of all data is estimated to be unstructured?

Which solution is recommended for holding files and backups of unstructured data?

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of unstructured data?

What type of database would you use if you need a scalable and highly available solution?

Structured Data

Typically organized in columns and rows, similar to spreadsheets and relational databases.
Clear and defined data, easy to capture and analyze.
Examples include name, address, contact number, date, and billing information.
Benefits include understanding by programming languages and relatively quick manipulation.

Unstructured Data

Estimated to account for around 80% of all data.
Difficult to process or analyze using traditional methods due to the lack of internal identifiers for search functions.
Includes text and multimedia content such as email, messages, documents, photos, videos, presentations, web pages, etc.
Organizations increasingly focus on mining unstructured data to gain a competitive advantage.

Cloud Storage Solutions

Unstructured Data: Cloud Storage is a good option for managing files, backups, logs, blobs, etc.
Structured Data:
- For workloads with analytics needs: Cloud BigQuery and Cloud Bigtable.
- For relational databases:
  - Traditional managed databases: CloudSQL (MySQL or PostgreSQL)
  - Horizontally scalable and highly available databases: Cloud Spanner.
- Simple NoSQL option: Cloud Datastore

This quiz covers structured and unstructured data, highlighting their characteristics, benefits, and examples. It also discusses cloud storage solutions tailored for both types of data, emphasizing analytics and management strategies. Test your understanding of these key concepts in data management.