{"id":3728,"date":"2019-06-29T03:54:18","date_gmt":"2019-06-29T10:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/?p=3728"},"modified":"2020-12-29T11:55:31","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T19:55:31","slug":"data-science-big-data-differences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/data-science-big-data-differences\/","title":{"rendered":"The Differences between Big Data and Data Science"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There\u2019s quite a lot of excitement around data science these days, with its reputation for being <a href=\"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/average-data-scientist-salary\/\">remunerative and future-oriented<\/a>. But people often confuse it with related terms, like \u2018big data&#8217;.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both of these concepts are notoriously difficult to pin down. But we\u2019re going to do our best to provide some clarity on the topic.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is Data Science?<\/strong><br><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"364\" src=\"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Data_Science_VD.png\" alt=\"Venn diagram displaying components of data science\n\" class=\"wp-image-3731\"\/><figcaption> This Venn diagram will go along way toward defining this slippery term.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>People often define data science more as the intersection of a number of other fields than as a stand-alone discipline. Most agree that it involves applying statistics and mathematics to problems in specific domains while keeping some of the insights <a href=\"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/data-science-vs-software-engineering\/\">from software engineering<\/a> best practices in mind. It\u2019s equally valid to conceptualize it as being like statistics with more coding or coding with more statistics.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Domain knowledge is extremely important, however. The kinds of data, models, techniques, and results you can expect vary widely depending on the field you\u2019re in. You won\u2019t be doing the same things in a startup looking to revolutionize advertising as you will be in a startup in the cryptoasset space. As a new data scientist, I spend about 101% of my waking hours learning the complicated internals of bitcoin, the blockchain, and related technologies. (If you\u2019re wondering how I spend more than 100% of my waking hours thinking about this stuff, it\u2019s because I also dream about it).<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What Is Big Data?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"802\" src=\"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/data-light.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3732\"\/><figcaption>Did you know if you took all the data in Big Data and stacked them on top of each other, you\u2019d have a great reason to seriously rethink how you spend your free time?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Big data is also difficult to define. At Galvanize we used the following definition: if you have more data than can fit on your local machine, you\u2019re probably working with big data.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another fairly common rule is that big data starts at 1 terabyte and goes up from there.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, this means the definition of \u2018big\u2019 data is a moving target. If tomorrow\u2019s desktops come with 10 terabyte hard drives, the threshold for big data will move up to that level.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But leaving aside the semantic quibbles, big data has become such an important part of the modern data science landscape that developers have come up with a whole suite of new tools specifically to deal with it, including everything from Spark to Cloud Computing. Some of my favorite Galvanize classes focused on these topics, as I think they\u2019re going to become an ever larger portion of the data scientist\u2019s workload.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hopefully that clears things up a bit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s quite a lot of excitement around data science these days, with its reputation for being remunerative and future-oriented. But people often confuse it with related terms, like \u2018big data'. Both of these concepts are notoriously difficult to pin down. But we\u2019re going to do our best to provide some clarity on the topic.&nbsp; What&hellip;","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":3733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50470],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech-guides"},"acf":{"post_sub_title":"","sprint_id":"","query_class":"Data Science","school_sft":"","parent_sft":"","school_privacy_policy":"","has_review":null,"is_sponser_post":"","is_guest_post":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Differences between Big Data and Data Science | Career Karma<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There\u2019s rather a lot of confusion around the distinction between big data and data science. Career Karma is here to sort things out.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/data-science-big-data-differences\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Differences between Big Data and Data Science\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There\u2019s rather a lot of confusion around the distinction between big data and data science. Career Karma is here to sort things out.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/data-science-big-data-differences\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Career Karma\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/careerkarmaapp\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-29T10:54:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-29T19:55:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/careerkarma.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/big_data.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"801\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Trent Fowler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@career_karma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@career_karma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Trent Fowler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/data-science-big-data-differences\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/data-science-big-data-differences\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Trent Fowler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/768fb9a38d2c1b146588954736f79aba\"},\"headline\":\"The Differences between Big Data and Data Science\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-29T10:54:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-29T19:55:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/data-science-big-data-differences\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":453,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/data-science-big-data-differences\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/big_data.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Tech Guides\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/data-science-big-data-differences\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/data-science-big-data-differences\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/data-science-big-data-differences\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Differences between Big Data and Data Science | Career Karma\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/data-science-big-data-differences\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/data-science-big-data-differences\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/07\\\/big_data.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-29T10:54:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-29T19:55:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/careerkarma.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/768fb9a38d2c1b146588954736f79aba\"},\"description\":\"There\u2019s rather a lot of confusion around the distinction between big data and data science. 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