The top tech buzzwords of 2013

Buzzwords are the scourge of the technology

industry. Those words that we hear everywhere,

that everyone tries to use to pitch whatever

they’re selling, and that most people aren’t really

sure what they mean.

Every year the Global Language Monitor releases

its list of the top tech buzzwords of the year, and

the 2013 list is now out.

Will the synergies scale vertically to the cloud?

Let’s find out.

By Jeff Jedras

Image courtesy of iprostocks at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Debuting on the list in the top position is

dark data.

It’s a subset of big data, because

apparently big data wasn’t a big enough

buzzword – it needed to spawn offspring.

It means your old data, the data that isn’t

part of your day to day operations, but

may still have business value.

If you buy this new BI tool, that is…

1. Dark Data

Image courtesy of Photokanok at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Holding down second spot on the buzzword

leaderboard for 2013 is the cloud. We don’t all

know what is, but by golly, we’ve all got to go to

the cloud!

Private cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud,

everywhere a cloud cloud.

The hype around this buzzword shows no sign of

slowing down yet, even if its meaning is still

flexible.

2. The Cloud

Image courtesy of gubgib at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How big is big data? According to MIT

researcher Andrew McAfee, it’s so big it’s

about to outgrow the metric system.

The largest unit of measure we currently

have is the Yottabyte, equivalent to a

quadrillion gigabytes. Now what’s a lot of

episodes of Game of Thrones.

If we need a new unit of measure, we vote

for the Hellabyte. Or maybe you could just

clean out your hard drive.

3. Yottabytes

The Next Big Thing is down one spot from last

year, so whatever The Next Big Thing is, it’s

apparently not The Next Big Thing.

Perhaps there haven’t been enough Big Things

recently, so whichever one is Next is probably

going to be The one.

Either way, in an industry known for its hype,

The Next Big Thing is sure to remain plentiful.

And always be next.

4. The Next Big Thing

Another newcomer to this year’s list is the

Heisenbug, which is apparently a computer

programming slang term for “a software bug

that seems to disappear or alter its behavior

when one attempts to study it.”

It’s named for physicist Werner Heisenberg,

who did something with quantum mechanics

you can Google if you’re really interested.

We’ll let you know if Sheldon brings it up on

Big Bang Theory.

5. Heisenbug