It is very important to understand the data flow in any software application. Data flow is a complex process in a software system. Modeling is an important part of understanding a complex software system's diagram and knowing how the data flow in the software system is represented using text and symbols. This process is usually called data modeling. The diagrams that are generated by data modeling can become a blueprint for new software development, or for legacy software re-engineering. Data and storage models are basic components in any big data ecosystem. 

Storage models include the physical aspect of data storage, while data models store the logical representations and structures for data processing and management. So, comprehending data storage and storage models plays a vital role in getting familiar with big data ecosystems. In this chapter, we will explore various aspects of big data modeling, as well as storage models.

The main topics that we will cover in this chapter are as follows:

• Exploring the different levels of data modeling
• Discovering the various types of data model
• Discussing the relational data model of comma-separated value (CSV) files
• Understanding the array data model of an image