Most over-hyped technology trends wear out their welcome pretty quickly, which should make skeptics among us wary about Big Data. However, while Big Data is being touted as the latest trend that will change the world, the skeptics aren't as, well, skeptical as they were about cloud and social. That's probably because Big Data is generating real-world wins for the companies embracing it. Already, Big Data analytics is starting to fundamentally change such disparate disciplines as pharmaceutical research, sales and marketing, and product development.