The Future of Big Data, Visualized [INFOGRAPHIC]

We’d start a public petition for blog posts about big data to stop using the “every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data” stat if we could. I mean, we all get it by now, right? Big data is BIG. Not just because we call it big, but because it is quite literally very big in every sense of the word. The amount of information each of us creates online on a near daily basis is massive. The collective amount of information we create online is even bigger, and growing ever bigger as the Internet of Things (i.e. wearables) begins to take off.

We’d start a public petition for blog posts about big data to stop using the “every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data” stat if we could. I mean, we all get it by now, right? Big data is BIG. Not just because we call it big, but because it is quite literally very big in every sense of the word. The amount of information each of us creates online on a near daily basis is massive. The collective amount of information we create online is even bigger, and growing ever bigger as the Internet of Things (i.e. wearables) begins to take off. The big data industry is big, too, with startups hardly half a decade old already IPO’ing or being acquired for multi-million dollar amounts. The need for big data education and training, too, is quite large. The gap between the amount of big data knowledge nearly all employees in all industries needs to possess and the amount of big knowledge they currently possess isn’t getting smaller – in fact, it’s growing. 

And all of that is because big data, like most internet-driven innovations, moves quickly, grows quickly and changes how business is done very, very quickly. From pulling in the likes of 20x ROI for some to making others near overnight millionaires due to ahead-of-their-time platforms enterprises simply can no longer do without (looking at you data warehousing startups!), big data is a big deal both on its own and for all of those that interact with it, i.e. all of us. 

Here, we break down how the industry has changed over time, and show the projected path for the years to come. And trust us, big data is no where near finished with impacting our lives in a very big way. 

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Download hi-res version here.

Infographic design by Chelsea Carlson