Big data refers to large and complex datasets that come from a variety of sources including social media, mobile devices, websites, and customer transactions. It is characterized by high volume, velocity, and variety. Analyzing big data can provide benefits such as improving customer targeting, decision making, security, healthcare, and science. However, major challenges include efficiently storing, processing, and managing the large volumes of diverse data. Technologies used to address these challenges include Hadoop, cloud computing, data warehousing, and data mining.