Harnessing the BIG DATA: How really important is it?

There is this buzz about BIG DATA and the great potential it has to uncover little known, hidden truths. So how really important is this?

For starters, here is a great video I found on YouTube by LinkAnalytics: 

Like everybody else, I start off by stating that times have changed and yesterday was certainly incomparably different from today. Formerly, the amount of data in circulation on the web was limited. This was partly due to the relatively lower number of internet users even until ten years back. Also, back in the 90s, the web was a corporate tool (to help them achieve their business goals) and a luxury of the privileged and wealthy few families. The purpose it served then and the multifarious new applications it is serving today are not worthy of a comparison. From business needs to entertainment; from informal, social networking to more professional, corporate-level business integration, the web can do pretty much anything today far beyond what could be envisaged by experts.

What is indeed inevitable with its increased use is the monstrous amount of new data that is getting added to it. Until at least 5 years back, nobody really cared about all that data. We can attest to this truth by taking an example in our own lives. We have been using free e-mail services for over a decade now. Ten years back, we used to do timely deletions of old, unimportant messages to make room for the new messages coming in. That was definitely only because of the storage constraints imposed upon users like you and me by the service providers. Things are completely different today. With more web advertising and cheaper costs of the storage infrastructure, we now have insane amounts of storage that renders message deletion irrelevant!

All the messages are there and until lately, neither you nor the service provider really drew attention towards it. But then this idea dawned upon clever minds that rather than deserting and abandoning all that data which is flowing in everyday, why not analyze them and discover contemporary trends and use them effectively to maximize business revenues. Now, that's what data analytics or data mining is all about! Little, I know about it as I have not yet attained corporate or industrial expertise, but I can surely vouch for this promising field which is going to change our lives and open doors to a more intelligent tomorrow!