Michael Stonebraker's answer is that big data can mean big volume (and small analytics,) big volume and big analytics, big velocity, and/or big variety. The fi

Michael Stonebraker's answer is that big data can mean big volume (and small analytics,) big volume and big analytics, big velocity, and/or big variety. The first three aspects fit the general usage on HN, while the fourth is his own addition, I think. He's writing a blog post on each one. The first post explains what he means by each aspect: Intro plus the "big volume, small analytics" case: http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/155468-what-does-big-data-mean/fulltext http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/155468-what-does-big-dat... "Big volume, big analytics": http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/156102-what-does-big-data-mean-part-2/fulltext http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/156102-what-does-big-dat... "Big velocity": http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/157589-what-does-big-data-mean-part-3/fulltext http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/157589-what-does-big-dat... "Big variety": yet to come