You can respond to this topic, Big Data and/or Data Mining, in several ways. You may respond with reactions, additional information, critical thinking, or counter responses. Here are a few possible questions that you may use to spark ideas.

1. Just what are data centers? Physical size? Power usage? Purpose? Environmental issues?
2. Give an actual example of how data mining helps a company. Provide details.
3. How much data does the NSA (National Security Agency) actually have. What kind of data does it keep?
4. How is big data changing our life?
5. What is Hadoop? How will Hadoop change big data?
6. Describe the hardware used in data centers, i.e. hard drives, memory, networking, etc.
7. Describe how eBay, Amazon, or Google structure their data centers.
8. Person encounters with large databases or data centers.

Include the complete URL of any resources used to create your response. Your link must take the reader directly any references you cited, including the book.