Inflection Point: How the Convergence of Cloud, Mobility, Apps, and Data Will Shape the Future of Business

8. Big Data

There were five exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every two days.

—Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google

As I write this book, amazed by the amount of data that is always available to my clients and me, I can’t help but think back on my education and early career.

I arrived at the College of William and Mary in 1984. While I studied philosophy and religion, my main extracurricular activity was intercollegiate debate (see Figure 8-1). I was on the national debate team, and we attended four or five debate tournaments every semester. A topic would be selected, and we would research that topic and formulate both affirmative and negative positions. ...