Big data: What the hellabyte?

I just got back from Orlando and The Premier Business Leadership Series, where big data researcher and writer Andrew McAfee staked his career on the world being “one big data problem.” According to McAfee, the metric system is about to become insufficient to describe the amount of data in the world.

Since 2008 we’ve run through the Petabyte Age and Exabyte Revolution, and pundits say we’ll hit the Zettabyte Era by the end of 2015. We’re about to run out of prefixes. Next is Yotta – and after that we’ll have to make up some new ones. McAfee’s tongue-in-cheek prediction? The Hellabyte.

It’s no surprise that organizations are struggling to keep up. That’s why this issue is dedicated to solutions for your big data challenges:

• Data governance – With big data comes data governance. Jill Dyché and Kimberly Nevala can help you avoid the five most commonly made mistakes
  
• Cloud – Cloud services are changing the reality of business technology. Here’s what you need to know before deploying analytics in the cloud.
  

You also don’t want to miss our look at one possible big data future – total immersion in a big data world; and our cover story on flash sale phenom Gilt.

Happy reading,
Anne-Lindsay