[kvh]

That specific point stuck out as incorrect to me as well. And given that it's one of the only technical points in the article, doesn't really inspire confidence in the author. That said, however, I do tend to agree with the overall hypothesis that the value add of "big data" is very marginal for most established industries, for exactly the reason he mentions: they've all been doing this for 20 years now. It's just become cheaper and easier recently. There are certain domains where modern data techniques can have a transformative effect, he mentions one (law). I don't think the data analytics solutions and companies that are being talked about are capable of generating these kind of transformative innovations though; so, I think the author is absolutely correct to say that the big data hype is overblown. There _will_ be big opportunities for big data, but they will come from disruptive startups finding new ways of doing old jobs. Not from crunching a few more GB of your data for a few less bucks.