Defining Big Data

Many professionals across industries, including the financial sector, say that we're at the forefront of a big data revolution. But what does big data actually mean, and how does it differ from data management? That can be hard for even a CIO to wrap his mind around amid a barrage of data-related buzz.

Thankfully, Mike Atkin, managing director of the Enterprise Data Management Council, helped to clear up some of the confusion surrounding the terms during a recent interview for an upcoming digital issue of Bank Systems & Technology. "Don't confuse data content management with big data," Atkins warned. "Dealing with big data requires mining through massive volumes of data to find trends and reveal insight."

He continued, "Data management has one objective: to deliver to the business users and regulators data that they have trust and confidence in to be fit for a purpose, and to be exactly what they expect it to be without reconciliation."

While I recognize that Atkin is a respected authority on data, I suspect that other industry experts might offer different definitions for the terms big data and data management. How do you define the terms? Keep the conversation going by e-mailing me at [email protected].

[Read more about big data and how financial institutions can make the most out of data by downloading the February 2012 digital issue of Bank Systems & Technology.]