Overview
ISO/IEC 20546:2019 - Information technology - Big data - Overview and vocabulary - is an ISO/IEC standard that defines a terminological foundation for the field of big data. Rather than prescribing technology or test methods, this document provides a clear set of terms and definitions and a conceptual overview to improve communication across industry, research and standards activities. Prepared by JTC 1/SC 42 (Artificial Intelligence), the standard explains how big data relates to other technical areas and highlights concepts that are central to big data practice.
Key topics
The standard organizes and defines core big data concepts, including:
- Big data - extensive datasets characterized by one or more of volume, velocity, variety, variability and requiring scalable technologies for storage, management and analysis.
- Data characteristics - formal definitions for data volume, data velocity, data variety, data variability, data veracity, and data volatility.
- Data processing concepts - definitions for data processing, data analytics, data science, distributed data processing, distributed file system, horizontal scaling (scale‑out), and non‑relational databases (NoSQL).
- Supporting concepts - metadata, data models, datasets, data types, and clusters.
- Cross-cutting concepts - Annex A provides an informative overview of broader computing concepts that intersect with big data (e.g., cloud computing and parallel/distributed architectures).
Note: ISO/IEC 20546:2019 is vocabulary/overview guidance; it does not contain normative technical requirements for system design or performance.
Applications and users
ISO/IEC 20546:2019 is practical for anyone who needs consistent, internationally aligned terminology in big data contexts, including:
- Standards developers and technical committees who need a common vocabulary for subsequent big data standards.
- Data architects, engineers, and platform vendors using terms like horizontal scaling, distributed file system, and non‑relational database in specifications and documentation.
- Data scientists and analysts collaborating across teams or organizations where shared definitions of data veracity, variability and analytics concepts reduce ambiguity.
- Procurement, legal and policy teams drafting contracts, SLAs or compliance language referencing big data capabilities.
- Educators and researchers teaching foundational big data concepts.
Using ISO/IEC 20546:2019 helps improve interoperability, governance, procurement clarity and cross-disciplinary collaboration by reducing terminology gaps.
Related standards
- ISO/IEC 17788 (cloud computing vocabulary) - referenced in the standard.
- ISO/IEC 2382 (information technology vocabulary) - source for many base definitions.
- ISO 19115-2 - referenced for dataset terminology.
Keywords: ISO/IEC 20546:2019, big data vocabulary, big data overview, data volume velocity variety, distributed data processing, horizontal scaling, data veracity, data analytics.
