"Big Data" and "Analytics" have been the buzzwords of at least the last 8 years. The first time I heard about big data, I was a sophomore in college and I recall attending a panel discussion at school where many VPs from IBM and Macy's were discussing the mystery of analytics. Nothing was really clear to me about this topic back then, and to be completely honest, I don't think they knew what they were talking about either. It was only a few years later that I understood what these terms meant; I was so fascinated by this topic that for my graduate degree I decided to focus in Marketing Analytics.

Now let's start from the basics for those who are not familiar with the terms; to make it simple, big data emerged because in the last couple of years there is more data to store, more data to analyze, and information can be harder to find. It used to be that as consumers we would be extremely careful at giving out our information and online shopping; giving my credit card number on a website? Are you people crazy? As time went by and the world of digital was quickly adopted, I found myself more comfortable with e-commerce and giving away personal information such as my demographics, email, credit card, etc. The Internet just made it convenient to get things done, anything. As we all started living attached to our computers, smartphones, and tablets, marketers were overloaded with customer information. Their 90's database softwares could no longer support the huge amount of data that was coming and that's how big data, analytics, and the cloud came to be. All of these terms are linked with each other, they all work together to help marketers analyze consumers needs and behaviors, predict future trends, and customize products and services based on this analysis. So what's not to like about big data? It has now become easier to search for the specific products that you want thanks to all the shortcuts companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook have provided us with.

There has been an infinite amount of debate in the past few years on the topic of privacy and big data and how some people feel violated or manipulated by marketers thanks to the easy access of personal information. Let's remember that we created this cloud together, consumers and marketers. There was no manipulation, but more attention to us as customers and personally I love the idea of finding exactly what I am looking for without getting lost in the clutter of things out there.