The term “big data” has become nearly ubiquitous. Indeed, it seems that every day we hear new reports of how some company is using big data and sophisticated analytics to become increasingly competitive. The topic first began to take off in late 2010 (at least according to search results from Google Trends) and, now that we’re approaching a five-year anniversary, perhaps it’s a good time to take a step back and reflect on this major approach to doing business. This article describes 10 of my observations about big data.

See also Tom Davenport’s Guide to Big Data