In the past couple of years, computing, storage and bandwidth capacity have become so cheap that it's altered the scale of what's possible in terms of collecting and analyzing data at every turn.
The first in a two part series from NPR on Big Data.
More: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/29/142521910/the-digital-breadcrumbs-that-lead-to-big-data
Part two: http://www.npr.org/2011/11/30/142893065/the-search-for-analysts-to-make-sense-of-big-data