Big Data: Executive Permission Not Required

I fancy myself a student of technology. I remember how, in the 1990s, the CRM, ERP, and BI genies were let out of their bottles. There was just no going back.

So, are Big Data solutions like Hadoop, NoSQL, and columnar databases different from their technological predecessors? If so, how?

First, let's take a step back. We know that Big Data is no flash in the pan. Companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Google, Twitter, and others have shown that it is here for the long term. Its value is very real if you can unleash it. Of course, that doesn't happen with relational databases and, more important, a culture averse to change, risk, and experimentation.