While I often romanticize the future of Big Data and the implications it has on the storage space, the fact is that Big Data’s impact has already reached us in many initial instances. Pointing out this movement’s endless opportunities, the researchers at Wikibon have been documenting Big Data in the Real World for over two years. They’ve published vertical-specific research highlighting how firms in retail, banking, media, utilities and pharma are leveraging stored Big Data analytics to drive performance.

We have a long way to go before Big Data is ubiquitous in the enterprise, and one thing that Big Data is going to need both today and in the future is a place to store it all…and store it smarter.

Last week Wikibon released its The Real World of Big Data infographic [see full graphic below].  The infographic paints a very clear picture of where Big Data is and where it’s projected to go. Pick your industry: healthcare, travel, financial — companies of every vertical are buying into Big Data and putting the data they’re collecting to good use.

Data they’re collecting…this means that companies are collecting (then) storing (then) analyzing and acting on data. As seen in my bolded emphasis, storage is the link between collection and the analysis and “actionizing” of data. Without storing it, Big Data in all its forms is under-optimized…or flat out useless.

The storage of Big Data allows companies to improve products, better streamline efficiencies and provide better services.  2012 storage revenue came in at $1.83 billion. That number jumps to a projected $7.28 billion in 2017. The only Big Data market with a higher grossing revenue in both 2012 and the 2017-projection is Compute. Trends are not able to be forecasted without stored data. Comparisons are not able to be made without stored data. Efficiencies are not able to be improved without stored data. The historical importance of data storage directly affects the end results of collecting and analyzing Big Data.

As seen in the infographic below, the numbers support my emphasis on the importance of storage for Big Data. There is currently a gap between the hype vs. solutions of Big Data, but the gap is closing. With the increasing adoption of Big Data at the enterprise level, storage only increases in relevancy and importance. Whether it’s pharmaceutical companies using Big Data to support drug development, or financial services companies using Big Data to conduct fraud analysis and risk profiling — storage is the backbone of Big Data.