We’ve done a number of articles on Big Data as it keeps trending on social media and rearing its head everywhere we turn. Digital data is growing at an exponential rate, doubling every two years, and changing our lives daily. The rate of growth is so dramatic that less than ½ a percent (0.5%) of all the data we generate is being analysed.
Data scientists understand the almost limitless potential from predicting disease patterns, to understanding our personal entertainment choices to decoding DNA strands. The challenge with all this data is learning how to harness it. So much data…so little time!
Watch the short video below from Business Insider to get an idea of the truly mind boggling impact of big data and our propensity to keep generating it.
Big Data impacts all our daily lives in so many ways. For example, any time we use our smartphones to find out directions, check our Facebook newsfeed, or simply search for something online. Big Data is involved in accurately predicting the outcomes of political elections and sports events. It’s used to allow advertisers to personalize their recommendations to suit your buying behavior. It even manages all those traffic lights on your way to work.
Like Orwell’s novel “1984”, Big Data is everywhere.
Most of us are familiar with thinking of large amounts of data in terms of gigabytes. But with nearly 3 quintillion bytes of data being generated every day we need to start thinking in terms of much larger terms such as terabytes, petabytes and exabytes. To illustrate, one exabyte is equivalent to almost 3,000 times the entire content of the Library of Congress. That’s a LOT of data!
The infographic below succinctly highlights some surprising things about Big Data that most people don’t know. From data sizing terms, a brief history of data evolution to a list of today’s top Big Data companies. We think you’ll find it interesting.
Credit: The above infographic was sourced from Adeptia https://www.adeptia.com/blog/surprising-things-you-dont-know-about-big-data