Most of the current spending is used in adapting traditional solutions to the big data demands --machine data, social data, widely varied data, unpredictable velocity, and so on--and only $4.3 billion in software sales will be driven directly by demands for new big data functionality in 2012.

currently has the most significant impact in social network analysis and content analytics with 45 percent of new spending each year. In traditional IT supplier markets, application infrastructure and middleware is most affected (10 percent of new spending each year is influenced by big data in some way) when compared with storage software, database management system, data integration/quality, business intelligence (BI) or supply chain management (SCM).

"Despite the hype, big data is not a distinct, stand-alone market, it but represents an industry-wide market force which must be addressed in products, practices and solution delivery," said Mark Beyer, research vice president at Gartner. "In 2011, big data formed a new driver in almost every category of IT spending.

However, through 2018, big data requirements will gradually evolve from differentiation to 'table stakes' in information management practices and technology. By 2020, big data features and functionality will be non-differentiating and routinely expected from traditional enterprise vendors and part of their product offerings."

Big data opportunities emerged when several advances in different IT categories aligned in a short period at the end of the last decade, creating a dramatic increase in computing technology capacity. This new capacity, coupled with latent demands for analysis of "dark data," social networks data and operational technology (or machine data), created an environment highly conducive to rapid innovation.