5. Conclusion

This article describes the term "Big Data" or megadata, which is currently at the heart of the concerns of players in all fields of activity, and discusses the main economic and societal issues involved. Many aspects were not covered in this article, such as the ethical issues associated with their use.

We have also introduced the various major methods and techniques involved, both in terms of storage and analysis. These methods and techniques, as well as the associated software tools, are still in their infancy.

With the market for megadata technology and services growing at an average annual rate of almost 30% worldwide, there is a major need for human expertise, particularly in megadata analysis, in the emerging discipline of data science.