Today’s Slaw post Big data is a hot trending tech issue.
Wikipedia defines big data as “a term applied to data sets whose
size is beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to
capture, manage, and process the data within a tolerable elapsed
time. Big data sizes are a constantly moving target currently
ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petabytes of data in
a single data set.” The initial issue with big data is the
ability to actually work with massive data sets – how to store,
search, and manipulate it. But the tools to do that are becoming
more sophisticated, and attention is turning to how to take
advantage of big data. This McKinsey report entitled Big data:
The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity
is a good summary of the possibilities. There is potential for
increased profit margins for retailers, reduced costs for
healthcare, product improvements and more. This all sounds good.
Consider for a moment though that big data means massive
databases that include huge amo