Machines and humans renegotiate their relationship. Welcome to the end of Big Data. That is, Big Data as a term is outdated — it’s just data now. The amount of structured and unstructured data generated is nearly unfathomable and expected to reach 44 zettabytes by 2020 and 180 zettabytes by 2025.

The influx of data has generated an increased need for data scientists, who are in short supply. According to Forrester, that need will not be met in the short term. While DIY data management is on the rise, data scientists are still in demand to extract useful insights.

Data scientists spend 80 percent of their time shaping data. Self-service data apps will allow executives across enterprises to cull their own insights, at their leisure. Those data scientists will have a new tool at their disposal — virtual- and augmented-reality technology — enabling them to be “in” the data.

By 2018, more than half of all organizations globally will compete using advanced analytics and proprietary algorithms. Software-defined infrastructure is also on the rise, with the size of the Software-as-a-Service market reaching $164.29 billion by year-end 2022.