Is Big Data really a megatrend?

Many people ask me why I don’t include ‘Big Data’ in my list of (mega)trends I am monitoring. Surely, ‘Big Data’ is more than just a buzz-word, and is certainly to evolve much further in the coming years?

Well, at the risk of being semantic about this, ‘Big Data’ as such is not exactly a trend. Analyzing big portions of information and turning it into insights is something humans have been doing increasingly since the start of written language. What has changed recently however is the sheer amount of data at our disposal, and the emergence of tools with which we can make since of all this data. But the exponential amount of data is in itself the consequence of other trends I closely monitor (social media, Internet of Things, …), and the new technologies are not so much a trend in itself, rather a natural response to our specific need in understanding the data.

That said, Big Data in itself will certainly become a big factor in many of the trends I follow (see the updated list hereunder). For instance, it can play a huge role in limiting the pace of climate change, through a better monitoring of the climate itself, for one. But one might think of more subtle, indirect impact of Big Data on climate change. Big Data could improve the complete supply chain of retailers, adjusting their stocks to what their customers are predicted by Big Data models to need in the near future, hence reducing waste and overproduction. Insurance companies could use Big Data to transform themselves into a service for people to avoid specific risks, again reducing potential waste (it could send an sms to its clients warning them to put their car in the garage when a big hail storm is underway, preventing damage to the car).

Okay, for some of the Big Data applications we still have a long way to go. But if its applications surpass the mere predictions of customer behavior for advertising needs –I have no doubt it will- it promises to have a big, positive impact on the efficiency (and, hence, the green-ness) with which our society is organized…

Stay tuned for more thoughts on this matter

Ah, for those in need of an introduction to Big Data, spend some time on these presentations: