Data can be divided into structured and unstructured. Structured data are well defined while unstructured data are not. Simply put, structured data has a schema. Structured data are simply easy to manage and structure due to its simplicity and comes with numerous tools that can help one analyze it like SQL or other database tools. Structured data are simply numbers, dates, and strings while unstructured data includes audio, video, documents, emails, and much more, which has less accessible techniques and tools. Structured data can be organized to reduce redundancies, resulting in lower storage requirements, and can be displayed in rows and columns in a relational database. Unstructured data on the other hand are not organized and can’t be displayed in relational databases and are more difficult to manage and protect. However, unstructured data make up of 80% of enterprise data per gartner.
When it comes to visualization, it’s easier to utilize structured data because it’s normalized and structured. It’s lot more easier to process structured data due to its predefined formats. Structured data are quantitative while unstructured data is qualitative and structured data are stored in warehouses while unstructured is stored in data lakes. Structured data sets are great for data analytics, especially for businesses.
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