Defined by Oracle as “the derivation of value from traditional relational database-driven business decision making, augmented with new sources of unstructured data,”1 many Internet companies are collecting and analyzing so-called “big data” every minute of every day. For example, a recent study, tracking just a dozen or so apps on an Android phone, found that the apps tracked the phone’s location more than 3,000 times per week—or once every three minutes. Groupon alone tracked the phone’s location more than 500 times per week.2 This is not an isolated circumstance, but just one more instance of big data defining how companies in technology-driven industries compete in the marketplace today.
Many have noted that big data is characterized by three “V’s.”3 The first is volume—the vast expansion in computer power and the tracking of consumer behavior means that companies are accumulating much more data than they have had in the past. The second is velocity—data is being accumulated and analyzed at instantaneous speeds. But at the same time, the speed of data collection means that outdated data is worth much less.
