The first data centre The US government builds the first data centre with the intention of storing millions of fingerprint sets and tax returns . The initiative – capable of holding 742 million tax returns and 175 million sets of fingerprints – is generally considered the first effort at large-scale data storage .

Big Data The World Economic Forums notes this as possibly the first use of the term Big Data in the way it is used today . International best-selling author Erik Larson pens an article for Harper ' s Magazine , speculating on the origin of the junk mail he receives . He writes : “ The keepers of big data say they are doing it for the consumer ’ s benefit . But data has a way of being used for purposes other than originally intended .”

Data deluge The publication Wired brings the concept of Big Data to the masses with the article , The End of Theory : The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Model Obsolete . The world ’ s servers process 9.57ZB ( 9.57 trillion GB of information – equivalent to 12GB of information per person , per day ), according to the How Much Information ? 2010 report .

Real-time intelligence IDC ’ s Future of Intelligence predictions for 2023 and beyond finds 90 % of the world ’ s most successful companies will use realtime intelligence and eventstreaming technologies by 2025 . The firm also predicts that , by 2024 , organisations with greater enterprise intelligence will have 5x institutional reaction time .