'Big data' is one of the latest buzzwords in the lexicon of IT professionals, especially in financial services. Banks and other financial institutions have always had to handle high volumes of data – concerning their customers and the products and services they use, and all the support functions. The amount of data available to them today, however, is truly mind-boggling.
Better and faster processing and storage is the reason for this explosion of information. Every expert has something to say on the scale of the growth, but a commonly quoted estimate is that the amount of data available to financial institutions is doubling every 18 months. That is forcing banks to invest in a new generation of platforms, tools, methodologies and skill sets.
