Why Big Is Bad When It Comes To Data

Calling it "big data" doesn't do it justice. Gushing data would be far more accurate.

Too bad the IT terms we coin stick like a price tag to a cheap trinket. Once they're on, you can't claw them off. Or when you do, they leave that ugly residue.

Take "big data." It's the catchphrase du jour. You hear it everywhere. The tech media, including InformationWeek, covers it thoroughly. Database and analytics vendors are glomming on to it for the cachet it gives their marketing efforts. I had to grin when SAS CEO Jim Goodnight, a wizened figure if ever there was one, properly scoffed in a recent interview with InformationWeek's Doug Henschen that "we're talking about big data now because everyone got tired of talking about the cloud."

There's nothing inherently wrong with being a new thing. Trouble is the term is just so imprecise. What's it say when the generally authoritative Wikipedia describes "big data" right off the bat as a "loosely defined term"?

Read the rest of this article on InformationWeek.