HD Voice, HD Video and… HD Data?

Here's a new marketing term for NoSQL and Big Data hype: HD Data

Just remember you saw it here first.

What is Big Data really? The easy answer is that it is all about V's. Find a V-word in the calendar that sounds good and you can attach it to Big Data. It starts with Volume, Velocity and Verity. Continues with Veracity, Value and a few other V's.

At the end of the day, it is a kind of a paradigm shift. It is thinking of data and treating data a bit differently once we pass an invisible threshold.

But how Big is Big? Usually, it is more than what you were used to manage up until now. Which… doesn't say much.

Switch to things I know about… VoIP.

In VoIP, it started with HD Video. HD Video is… more resolution. And usually a bit more frame rate. Some will say 720p resolution (1280x720) is HD. Others will say it is only "HD Ready". Then there's 1080p resolution (1920x1080) and 4K – which is… too much.

HD Video was such a great marketing term, then HD Voice followed. Up until then, it was called "wideband", but then it was marketed as HD Voice. Why? Because people grok HD (they don't, but it worked anyway).

When we want to say that the quality of our media is better, we call it either HD Voice or HD Video.

Back to Big Data.

So we are trying to convey somehow that Big Data is different than Data. We have more of it, it is more varied, and we like it that way, because we assume we can do stuff with it. Rephrased, there's quality in Big Data that is more than what we had with simple data.

If it is the quality that is different, then why not just call it HD Data?