We live in a data-centric world, and we speak casually about bytes, megabytes, and gigabytes. But now, the amount of data that’s out there has surpassed the terms we’ve previously used to describe it. Instead, Big Data is now the reality.
We live in a data-centric world, and we speak casually about bytes, megabytes, and gigabytes. But now, the amount of data that’s out there has surpassed the terms we’ve previously used to describe it. Instead, Big Data is now the reality.
Big Data comes from the 2.5 quintillion bytes of data that are created daily by everything from photos posted to Instagram to weather balloons, and it includes data sets with sizes beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, curate, manage, and process data within a reasonable amount of time. The biggest users of Big Data are, logically, some of the biggest companies in the world. Google, for example, has been estimated to have over ten exabytes of data, and Facebook collects 500 terrabytes of data each day. Amazon, Microsoft, Target, VMware, and UPS all utilize Big Data as well.
For those of us who don’t work at Big Data companies, we still interact with Big Data on a regular basis. For example, Big Data is used to predict sporting events and election outcomes. Our smartphones use Big Data to answer our questions about the weather and traffic, and several cities actually use Big Data to streamline traffic on the streets. Finally, Big Data helps companies make personalized advertising and purchasing recommendations, and medical establishments can use the data to predict outbreaks of potential epidemics.
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In the past, most data was stored on videotapes, such as VHS cassettes. However, digital storage grew annually by 23% between 1986 and 2007, and by 2007, 94% of all data was stored digitally. Today, some experts estimate that 90% of all our data was produced within the past two years, and it’s also estimated that 40 zettabytes of data will be created by 2020.
So where do Big Data and cloud technologies go from here? Companies will continue to increase their usage of cloud computing, with an increased focus on security as well. Private cloud computing, specifically, will become more widely used, and cloud computing will lead to an increase in related education and employment. To learn more about big data check out the infographic from Adeptia below.
