There was a time when embracing big data was expensive. But the economics have changed over time, making big data technology more attractive an investment. The cost of storage has declined significantly with the use of distributed systems based on clusters of inexpensive servers the collective storage of which can be accessed as a single system. In addition, the advent of low-cost cloud-based object stores has also reduced the cost of storing large amounts of data. The cost of computing power has also declined thanks to the availability of increasingly powerful CPUs and with better utilization of those CPUs via virtualization that allows the sharing of workloads. With both more data and more processing power available, organizations can now perform advanced analytics on large amounts of data, including more sophisticated and valuable analyses relying on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). The changing economics mean that what was once a rare capability has now become a competitive necessity.