Unless you’ve managed to completely tune out the IT press, you’ve likely been deluged with gushing articles about “Big Data” and its impact on IT.

Traditionally, Big Data was little more than large data sets that might require some specialized tools and techniques for storage, manipulation, and analysis. Like Web 2.0, Cloud Computing, and other overwrought jargon, depending on whom you talk to Big Data will now revolutionize IT, make the CIO into a C-Suite hero, and completely obviate the need for conventional reporting and data analysis.