Big Data Begets Big Database Theory

Industry analysts describe Big Data in terms of three V's: volume, velocity, variety. The data is too big to process with current tools; it arrives too fast for optimal storage and indexing; and it is too heterogeneous to fit into a rigid schema. There is a huge pressure on database researchers to study, explain, and solve the technical challenges in big data, but we find no inspiration in the three Vs. Volume is surely nothing new for us, streaming databases have been extensively studied over a decade, while data integration and semistructured has studied heterogeneity from all possible angles.