Is Big Data a
Big Deal for
Insurers?
Given the persistence of the trope that
insurers are laggards when it comes to technology,
it’s instructive to shine a light on the ample evidence
to the contrary.
this seems especially so in the case of “Big Data,”
a term currently in a death struggle with cloud com-
puting for most overused it buzzword of the decade.
Yet, as is often the case, past the annoyance factor
resides the prospect of real value.
a new report from the McKinsey Global institute
(MGi) attempts to cleave through the hype surround-
ing Big Data, and offers a workable, if subjective, defi-
nition of the term. “Big data refers to datasets whose
size is beyond the ability of typical database software
tools to capture, store, manage and analyze,” McKin-
sey states. “We assume that, as technology advances
over time, the size of datasets that qualify as big data
will also increase.”
and, man, are datasets increasing. MGi estimates
that globally, enterprises stored more than 7 exabytes
of new data on disk drives in 2010 (picture 7 million
of those 1-terabyte hard drives you have been eyeing
at Best Buy). thus the challenge surrounding Big Data
is primarily one of scale. Yet, considering the relative
maturity of the use of business analytics in insurance,
not to mention the considerable investment insurers
have made in data warehousing, this challenge seems
surmountable.
Bill Kenealy
senior editor
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