The proliferation of big data is such that it's become almost redundant to refer to it as 'big' – it should simply be 'data'. In fact, Gartner dropped the concept from its hype cycle last year, claiming it has become too prevalent in our lives to be considered hype. So where should companies be looking to now?

Since big data started flowing into our organisations, we've learned how to make way for it, and store it. However, this is not where big data's story ends - the importance now lies in how it’s utilised and analysed, in order to benefit companies when the Internet of Things (IoT) hits.