The Big Data Gold Rush: Will Wall Street Be Left Behind?

A 21^st century gold rush is under way -- but it isn't about precious metal, it's about data.

The amount of information coming from digital sources such as blogs, social media, databases, audio, and video continues to expand. Not surprising, since almost every human being on the planet is a source -- as well as all the systems belching out data exhaust. The current flow can be measured in exabytes -- each of which is one quintillian bytes. That's a massive amount of information.