Does “BigDzilla” sound familiar?  Those of you familiar with Ultraman would also know Godzilla the huge monster. BigDzilla is also a huge monster otherwise known as Big Data. There seems to be much excitement about Big Data these days. Big Data is seen by some as the next money-spinner. It can both be sold and be used to predict customer behaviour, amongst other things. Of course, that is likely to mean more revenue, and most of us like that.

Big Data means a lot of resources made available to those who have it. It probably also means a lot of other resources to manage it, so think carefully before jumping on that bandwagon. Big Data can be analyzed, worked with, tweaked and presented for a whole range of purposes. “Let the facts speak for themselves” we hear. And, yes, the facts can be very compelling, depending on how they are presented, and in what context. 12 GB of storage doesn’t mean much unless we say that it’s enough for you to listen to music while travelling to the moon and back. That’s one way of helping people make sense of your data.

So, yes, Big Data is going to be a Big Influence. I wonder where it’ll take us. Hopefully, Homo learns quickly to be Sapiens and handle Big Data like what it actually is – a tool to be used. Otherwise, we’d really have BigDzilla on our hands. If that happens, it might take more than an Ultra-Sagacious Man to save us.