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HP Discover: Does Big Data mean Big Brother?[/h]
Last year the big buzzword around the HP Discover show floor was Cloud
Computing. This year, although cloud is still being used, the new keyword appears to be Big Data. Like cloud, there is no official definition for Big Data and it means different things to different people. While some believe their 500GB structured database is "Big Data," others think that the definition should include 10TB of unstructured data.
Despite that, everyone seems to have one common goal: Real-time analytics of the
data. In addition, the common example given at HP Discover seems to be around retail stores being able to give instant feedback to customers shopping in their stores. Spend some time in the TV section and receive a text offering you a $100 coupon. Visit the frozen food department and get an offer for buy two, get one free frozen pizza. In essence, stores want to take the next step from their “loyalty” cards and encourage you to purchase while you’re shopping and not just know what you bought after the fact.
