While not every piece of data finds its way into the big data ecosystem, a number of figures already highlight the challenge of finding useful data amongst the rest. In 2020, it was projected that the overall amount of data created worldwide would reach 59 zettabytes, climbing rapidly into the future. Contributing to the rapid growth of data traffic is the internet of things (IoT), which is already connecting the digital and physical worlds through a network of sensors. The data volume created by global IoT connections already reached 13.6 zettabytes in 2019 and is forecast to amount to over 79 zettabytes by 2025.
The need for digital transformation and innovation are among the key drivers for investing in artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technologies. As of 2019, the adoption rate of big data technology stood at 52.5 percent among surveyed global organizations, with a further 38 percent intending to use the technology in the future. Data warehouse optimization and forecasting are among the most important big data use cases found in organizations, with other key use cases including customer/social analysis and predictive maintenance.
