The Vedomosti newspaper informs: Rosstandart has approved the terminological standards to be followed by the participants of the big data market, follows from the order of the department, which Vedomosti got acquainted with. This standard is being introduced for the first time, it follows from its description
The state standard (GOST) “Information Technologies. Big data. Review and vocabulary” is identical to the international standard Information technology – Big data – Overview and vocabulary, emphasize its developers from the National Center for Digital Economy of Moscow State University and the Institute of the Information Society. The development of the standard was carried out within the framework of the budgetary program of state support for the National Technological Initiative (NTI) competence center for big data storage and analytics at Moscow State University, said a representative of the autonomous non-commercial organization “NTI Platform”.
“The terms established by this standard are mandatory for use in all types of documentation and literature on this scientific and technical branch, included in the scope of work on standardization and (or) using the results of these works,” – noted in the description of the standard.
The GOST contains translations of English terms related to big data into Russian and a decoding of their meanings. For example, “data analytics” is “a composite concept that encompasses the acquisition, collection, validation and processing of data, including its quantification, visualization and interpretation.” And, for example, “data variability” – “changes in the transmission rate, format or structure, semantics or quality of the data array.” Then follow the key characteristics of big data (volume, processing speed, variety and variability) with an explanation of their meaning.
“The adoption of the first national standard sets the vector of joint actions by government, business, and academia to develop the data economy in Russia,” says Yuri Hohlov, chairman of the board of directors of the Institute of the Information Society. “We are committed to closing the big data standardization gap.” Terminology standards are the first in the IT industry, and then all the others are added to them, he explains.
According to Hohlov, eight more national standards in the field of big data are to be adopted, concerning their reference architecture, security, analysis methods, use cases, etc.
As of the end of 2019, the Boston Consulting Group estimated the volume of the Russian big data market at RUB 45 billion with a growth rate of 12% over the past five years. According to the calculations of the Big Data Association, the volume of the big data market in Russia is 10-30 billion rubles. At the same time, according to the average forecasts of Russian and foreign experts, this indicator is expected to grow to 300 billion rubles by 2024.
A terminological standard is really necessary, says Nikita Utkin, chairman of the Cyber-Physical Systems Technical Committee at Rosstandart: “It should allow big data market participants to communicate in one language – terminological uniformity is needed, for example, for drawing up procurement documents, technical specifications and technical documentation.”
“It will be possible to rely on this terminological apparatus when creating regulatory documents,” says Christina Proskurnina, head of Big Data at CROC.
The representative of Mail.ru Group believes that standardization of terms is a useful thing, as it reduces misunderstandings between market participants: “If the proposed terminology helps in structuring communication on a given topic, it’s not bad. Especially for those companies that are just getting started with big data.”
There are already several international standards for big data in the world that define concepts and terms, says director of the Institute for Internet Research Karen Ghazaryan: “Therefore, Rosstandart’s actions are quite logical. But for business, this standard does not change anything, it is, in fact, just a dictionary of terms with which participants in the big data market are already perfectly familiar.”
Rather, it is a dictionary for officials, who often have a vague idea of what big data is – it will only help companies with government purchases, summed up Ghazaryan.
“I would like the business to be more deeply involved in the development of big data standards,” Utkin concludes.