Big Data has indeed become a "big" term now. In fact, recent faculty openings, call for grant proposals, etc. clearly indicate the growing importance of Big Data. What exactly is Big Data? Big Data refers to large volumes of unstructured and semi-structured data that can be processed to identify important patterns. The challenge lies in the fact that it might be too costly and time consuming to load such data into relational databases. Such data may bring forward important revelations for organizations and help them in formulating for effective and nuanced business strategies, the analysis of big data has to go beyond that conventional datawarehousing and business intelligence programs.
A recent and interesting application of Big Data analysis was that done by the Obama campaign in the recent US presidential elections. For more information on what and how this was done, check out the following news articles:
