Model-based analysis tools, built on assumptions and simplifications, are difficult to handle smart grids with data characterized by 4Vs data. This paper, using random matrix theory (RMT), motivates data-driven tools to perceive the complex grids in highdimension; meanwhile, an architecture with detailed procedures is proposed. In algorithm perspective, the architecture performs a high-dimensional analysis, and compares the findings with RMT predictions to conduct anomaly detections. Mean Spectral Radius (MSR), as a statistical indicator, is defined to reflect the correlations of system data in different dimensions. In management mode perspective, a group-work mode is discussed for smart grids operation. This mode breaks through regional limitations for energy flows and data flows, and makes advanced big data analyses possible. For a specific large-scale zone-dividing system with multiple connected utilities, each site, operating under the group-work mode, is able to work out the regional MSR only with its own measured/simulated data. The large-scale interconnected system, in this way, is naturally decoupled from statistical parameters perspective, rather than from engineering models perspective. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of these distributed MSRs, even with imperceptible different raw data, will produce a contour line to detect the event and locate the source. It demonstrates that the architecture is compatible with the block calculation only using the regional small database; beyond that, this architecture, as a data-driven solution, is sensitive to system situation awareness, and practical for real large-scale interconnected systems. Five case studies and their visualizations validate the designed architecture in various fields of power systems. To our best knowledge, this study is the first attempt to apply big data technology into smart grids.