IBM

This is a big question and one which, once fully considered, has massive implications for any business. Every day, businesses are amassing an increasing amount of data and the scope of what can be measured is also expanding at an incredible rate. While businesses are still getting to grips with how to use this data meaningfully, some are struggling to manage it effectively.

Sometimes that means databases becoming corrupt at an increasing rate as they become larger, or more difficult to store effectively in-house. Massive databases may be creating too much demand on infrastructure when being processed at speed or being that diverse in nature that it is difficult to know where to start when organising them into a usable format.

What is Big Data?

Once upon a time, a business would store essential information such as client names and invoice details, order history and accounts records for example. This information would be structured into usable format and, with the dawn of the computer age, tied up with software making it easy to access. Looking back to that era, data was gathered conscientiously and with a definite purpose in mind. The bigger the business was, the bigger the databases required to store its prized information.