[ianfernz]

What qualifies as "big data" though? Is it a terabyte? A petabyte? Or is it just a buzzword?

[mark_integerdsv]

I work in BI and data analysis and this is my personal definition: traditionally, companies have mined their own internal data. Cost to sales, balance sheets, customer surveys, top sellers... Etc.

Big data are defined as those data external to the organization. My definition of big data is to also look without as opposed to only looking within.

[acgourley]

It's a buzzword but it's also meaningful. If you've ever tried to look at data that doesn't fit on reasonably sized server you'll understand.