“Big” is in, especially when it comes to archived information. Data is a hot commodity today, but this only works when the collected data is extensive, relevant to a situation, and effectively analyzed. The massive volume of ever-growing, ever-changing ad hoc data being saved has become a logistical nightmare to manage, categorize, and process with traditional software and database techniques. Good news: there’s ample computer power and innovative tools to help handle huge amounts of information. Huge investments are being made to manage, maintain, and manipulate information. You can even earn a college degree in Big Data. Huge data sets can quickly be analyzed to identify relevant information, reveal patterns, discover trends, and sort relationships. All of this contributes to better decisions and strategic actions.
What does big data have to do with you? Plenty. First, you personally are an active participant and contributor to the collection plate of information. Pretty much every time you use a mobile phone, website, credit card or smart thermostat, information is added to the gargantuan data pool. Initially, information was stored in “data silos” specific to that device or topic and each data set individually used. By creatively tying together multiple sources of information, the challenge of extrapolating insights from independent data sets is overcome. And someone, somewhere, is interested in paying for the insights.