This Recommendation describes the functional architecture for big data as a service (BDaaS). The functional architecture is defined on the basis of the analysis of requirements and activities of cloud computing based big data described in ITU-T Y.3600. Following the methodology of ITU-T Y.3502, the BDaaS functional architecture is described from a set of functional components and cross-cutting aspects. The specified functional components consist of sets of functions that are required to perform the BDaaS activities for the roles and sub-roles described in ITU-T Y.3600.