Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 December 2015
Businesses, governments, universities, hospitals, law enforcement agencies, and other organizations are increasingly collecting and analyzing data to inform decision making. This “big data” movement has benefited from the contributions of a number of academic disciplines, including mathematics, statistics, and computer science. The technical advances involved in big data have grown exponentially in recent years, thus contributing to its growing use by organizations, the experience of which contributes to further refinements and so forth. This cycle of technical advancement is likely to continue into the foreseeable future.