Give it four more years and the coastal territories of the internet will be inundated by an incalculable amount of data, some zettabytes-large data. Talks on big data are not hype—it is happening, and it is inevitable.  But unlike mother nature’s surprise attacks, the big data boom is something that experts have been anticipating for some time.  In this case, data scientists are looking at 2015 for the next flood mankind must face. Given this relatively short period, do we have enough time to prepare for this torrent of data? An infographic (see below) shows how to find the high grounds when the big data rush arrives.

How Big Will Big Data Be in 2015?

How industries and companies can precisely measure activities and customer relationship through business analytics is a gift from big data. The word “big” in this regard is becoming ubiquitous. For a non-expert, the following could be the plainest illustration possible:

The Library of Congress in the United States carries around 147 millions of assets composed of books, print materials, recordings, manuscripts, photographs, pieces of sheet music and maps. These will produce 208 terabytes of digitized information and 254 terabytes web archive—giving a grand total of 462 terabytes of digital data. In 2011 alone, the estimate of data that will be created and replicated is at 1.8 zettabytes. This is expected to increase to 7.9 zettabytes in 2015. This much is equivalent to 18 million Libraries of Congress.

Head of research and development at Teradata, Scott Gnau gives an empirical definition of big data:

“Big data isn’t just about large volumes of data, it is about diverse data from web logs, sensor networks, social networks, call detail records and more. We define the big data space as an emerging data type and diverse analytics; it is still an emerging market.”

Mobility Dictates Plethora

Internet-enabled devices are the prime perpetrators of the big data outburst. PC’s are mainstays with a 26% share of the market. But it’s the love for mobile gadgets that will turn thing around for big data.  It garnered an 82% share, becoming the ultimate driving force behind device adoption.  Other devices like televisions and blu-ray players will also contribute to this trend, and video will be the fastest growing media type, expected to double by the end of 2012.

Big Data will demand more space, and perhaps more expenditures for enterprises to maintain infrastructure at par. By 2015, the number of physical and virtual servers worldwide is likely to augment ten times, while enterprise data centers will multiply by 50 times their current size.  The volume of information flowing from data centers will also run high, with an increase of 75 times.  That IT workforce and professionals’ need will follow.

Companies Go Gaga Over Big Data

In a Forbes article, International Data Corporation or IDC, a global leader in market intelligence and advisory services, noted the opportunities and competition that big data will create:

“Big Data developments will be perhaps the most critical new marketplace for storage solutions providers in the coming decade. Providing a strong portfolio of complete Big Data solutions – hardware, software, and implementation services – will be a high priority to succeed.”

People, enterprises, government, academe, healthcare and the whole world will look for a place to store their ginormous mass of data. The obvious beneficiary would be storage providers and innovators that include the likes of EMC, NetApp, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Dell. Being a cloud champion, EMC has an immense advantage over competition in the $70 billion big data industry. Microsoft is also placing a larger-than-life bet on Hadoop to be the premier platform for low-cost analyzing of unstructured and large volumes of data.

Someone does not necessarily have to be an expert to realize the data explosion happening, growing larger with every glimpse of a second. With the world embracing internet, social networking, mobility and technology of all other sorts, the exponential rate of information influx is only going up. It’s not a life-threatening situation by any means, but it is life-changing.  In fact, organizations are now capitalizing on avenues that big data will traverse, and will be extremely lucrative in no time. It’s like, whatever big data touches, it turn into gold.