What does ‘big data’ really mean?

Big data is an IT buzzword nowadays, but what does it really mean? When does data become big? 

At a recent Big Data and High Performance Computing Summit in Boston hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), data scientist John Rauser mentioned a simple definition: Any amount of data that’s too big to be handled by one computer.  Some says that’s too simplistic. Others say it’s spot on. “Big data has to be one of the most hyped technologies since, well the last most hyped technology, and when that happens, definition become muddled,” says Jeffrey Breen of Atmosphere Research Group.