PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA 60
FEATURES
Perhaps the only item escaping scrutiny for potential reduction in this
economic environment is the quantity of structured and unstructured electronic
data moving throughout the enterprise. This so-called "big data" continues to be a
hot topic with the continued explosion of e-discovery, social media and similar data
sources, and big data will only get bigger. Big data raises information governance
concerns for law firms, but it can also help move governance initiatives forward.
WHAT IS "BIG DATA"?
Big data can be defined as data sets with so much size and/or variety that they are
difficult to manipulate and/or quickly search using traditional approaches and tools.
For those who prefer formal definitions, Gartner defines big data as high-volume,
high-velocity and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective,
innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision-
making. When you hear terms such as Hadoop, Map/Reduce or NoSQL, you are
hearing about big data tools.
