Big Data For Small Business For Dummies

Chapter 6

Understanding the Technology Changes that Underpin Big Data

In This Chapter

Delving into cloud technology and how it has revolutionised data

Looking at the storage and analytic developments that make big data possible

Understanding recent advances in text, speech, video and image analytics

It may seem like big data has exploded onto the business and tech scene out of nowhere. In fact, the ability to store and analyse information has been a gradual evolution: from paper records and dusty archive rooms to the microfiche, from disks to big mainframe computers to data centres. We humans are continually searching for ways to better understand what’s going on around us, which means we gather and store information and try to extract some sort of meaning from that information – in whatever way current technology allows.

This evolution, however, certainly sped up at the end of the last century, with the invention of digital storage and the Internet. Huge advances in computing, storage and analytic technology came together to create the phenomenon that is big (circle back to Chapter ...