Big Data

Take a look at the special edition of Nature on Big Data. Although this is focused on the continued explosion of scientific data and the problems with processing all this data, it's a fair commentary on what is happening across all industries. There is too much data for current tools to efficiently process. More often than not, organizations are finding themselves limited by their ability to process and understand all the data that they hold. Google, when is it not, is a stellar example of the payback you can get if you can tame the data deluge. If only ordinary organizations could do half as good a job of getting to grips with their data. Fortunately, that means work for the rest of us.


Another article worth read is The Claremont Report on Database Research. This reports on a workshop held by some eminent database bigwigs and their conclusions on the challenges facing the database industry in this new climate. The report picks up on the "Breadth of excitement about Big Data". Again Google has probably been key in stirring up this excitement. They have certainly opened peoples eyes to the value of getting to grips with this explosion of information. This is probably why there are so many new venture-backed database companies starting out at the moment. It's all about the data. What a great time to be a database practitioner.