Today we are getting to the point where big data software and processing power (a few billion calculations can be done in short time spans) are converging to allow for the emergence of a new range of applications : Real-time Big Data analysis.
The Wall Street Journal just published a story on this topic called “So, What’s Your Algorithm?” that is a good illustration of this idea. Big Data is now the big trend in science research (and I’m not talking about LHC kind of big data, but mainly social data).
If 2011 was the year of big data, I believe that 2012 will without a doubt be the year when we see the mass adoption of Big Data analysis. While for now, this kind of analysis is limited to research and companies with some money in their pockets, we’ll see more and more these kind of products reaching small business, probably local retail stores, etc, etc,… It will be a good time to develop new software for big data analysis. Both integrating existing algorithms and developing new ones.
update: corrected some grammar..