How Different is Big Data?

One buzzword that has been popular in the last couple of years is Big Data. In simplest terms, Big Data symbolizes the aspiration to build platforms and tools to ingest, store and analyze data that can be voluminous, diverse, and possibly fast changing. In this talk, I will try to reflect on a few of the technical problems presented by the exploration of Big Data. Some of these challenges in data analytics have been addressed by our community in the past in a more traditional relational database context but only with mixed results. I will review these quests and study some of the key lessons learned. At the same time, significant developments such as the emergence of cloud infrastructure and availability of data rich web services hold the potential for transforming our industry. I will discuss the unique opportunities they present for Big Data Analytics.