The Harvard Business Review (HRB) recently stated that more data passes through the Internet every second than was stored in the entire Internet 20 years ago.

In 2012 about 2.5 exabytes of data were created each day. That number is doubled every 40 months, also according to HBR. Big data helps us make sense of this information and even gives us a real-time look into what is happening.

Companies have had access to big data platforms for several years now and use them as a means of creating accurate analyses. So what’s next for big data? Here are 4 trends revolutionizing big data:

The Cloud

More and more companies are offering big data cloud services. The cloud offers easily scalable infrastructure and cuts out large upfront IT investments. The cloud is a cost-efficient solution to rapidly growing amounts of data that need increasing amounts of space.

Analytics in the people’s hands

By letting people visualize data, they can view things differently. This applies to both personal and work life. By seeing things in new ways, more innovative ideas are sparked. Plus, young people might become interested in analyzing their own self-serving data. This could lead them to seek a career in the technology space where more data-savvy workers are needed.

Cognitive Computing

Cognitive computing systems learn and interact naturally with people. They help experts make better decisions by penetrating the complexity of big data. It’s the underlying system that allows Google to know what we mean when we search for something.

Now, this technology is being brought to the real world. It was demonstrated when IBM’s Watson System beat Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings. For business leaders, this means the potential for custom software that can leverage data and continue to learn.

The Internet of Things 

The Internet of Things is a concept in which objects, animals or people will be connected to the Internet and be able to identify themselves to other devices. This will require no human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction, thus making the physical world one big information system. This is significant because objects will now be connected to surrounding objects and database data. The object is able to represent itself digitally and connect to other objects via data.