Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing application software is inadequate to deal with them. Challenges include capture, storage, analysis, data curation, search, sharing, transfer, visualisation, querying, updating and information privacy. Software vendors, eager to sell you their wars have re-classified it describe ” All the data your business produces” and the claim is that being able to analyse all of this can yield more valuable insights. The reality often is however that it is not analysed for good reasons and it can certainly be said that no extra tools are required by the vast majority of the worlds business in order to analyse all of the data they produce, should they decide that this is desirable. In the real world, the big challenge with big data is not so much processing power or tools to analyse huge data sets, but the time and money to clean up data sufficient to have any value at all and to avoid receiving information that is downright dangerous
If you want to dig a little deeper, take a look at my article from last year entitled How much data is big data