4.4 Big data

• Databases


  Fundamental tool for organising data for more than fifty years, will continue to be useful into the foreseeable future
• In 2013, the ACI Information Group estimated that humanity had created 5 exabytes of data between the dawn of civilisation and 2003
• By 2015, humanity was generating 5 EB of data every 2 days
• The rate at which data is acquired continues to accelerate
• Traditional media have been replaced by digital storage and transmission, whilst new industries including social media and the 'Internet of Things' are built around creating and sharing vast amounts of new data
• Police can be deployed to these areas before damage and injury occurs
• None of this would be possible without the ability to process enormous amounts of data extremely rapidly