Information access and retrieval within most organizations is a work in progress. There might be a general search system for marketing information, and probably one or more database search systems.

The larger the organization, the greater the number of information retrieval systems. Each laptop and mobile device has a search system. Mobile phone apps sport their own search systems. The lawyers in an organization may have different search systems for specific types of legal matters. The enterprise resource planning (ERP) users have a search system. When it comes to enterprise search, there are many silos.

Big Data is everywhere. But to harness its potential, organizations should understand the challenges that come with collecting and analyzing Big Data. The three values that are important in managing big data are volume, velocity, and variety. These three factors serve as guidance for Big Data management, highlighting what businesses should look for in solutions.

But even as organizations have started to get a handle on these three V’s, two other V’s, veracity and value are important as well, if not more so.

Roughly 56% of teenagers and 41% of adults use voice search on their mobile phones every day, according to Northstar Research.

For example, modern consumers in Boston are much more likely to ask Google Now, Siri, Cortana, or Amazon’s Alexa to find the nearest coffee shop than they are to type "coffee shops near Boylston Street in Boston" into a search bar on Google's homepage.

Content is the fuel of your organization. Content spills into all areas of an organization and fuels absolutely everything with which customers interact, whether it's a commerce web site, marketing or sales materials, or any other channels.

Preferences for content vary by continent. Companies looking to expand operations overseas will inevitably face cultural and language barriers. They will have to think about how content is resonating with global audiences and they will face the challenge of determining which content to adjust to meet the needs of local markets.

Big Data is an ever-evolving term which is used to describe the vast amount of unstructured data. Published reports have indicated that 90% of the world’s data was created during the past two years alone.

Whether it’s coming from social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, or from countless other Web sites, mobile devices, laptops, or desktops, data is being generated at an astonishing rate. Making use of Big Data has gone from a desire to a necessity. The business demands require its use.