The timeline of big data goes back further than many think. A number of critical milestones have changed the course of big data and its storage. From 2010, the role of big data in businesses started to become more obvious, and by 2012 power utility was among a number of industries that started adopting big data analytics.

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Listed below are the major milestones in big data, as identified by GlobalData.

1943 – The UK developed the first data processing machine to decipher Nazi codes.

1945 – ENIAC, the first general purpose computer was completed.

1954 – The first fully transistorised computer was built without the use of vacuum tubes.

1964 – The IBM System/360 family of mainframe computer systems was launched.

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1971 – Intel’s 4004 became the first general purpose programmable computer.

1973 – Xerox unveiled the first desktop system to include a graphical user interface and internal memory storage.

1977 – ARCnet introduced the first LAN at Chase Manhattan Bank connecting 255 computers.

1981 – The PC era began.

1983 – IBM released its first commercially available relational database system called the DB/2.

1989 – Implementation of the Python programming language began.

1990-1995 – The value of storing and processing large datasets became obvious and the term “Big Data” was first used.

1999 – NoSQL, an open-source relational database was developed.

2000-2005 – The internet began to offer unique and large sets of data from millions of users.

2002 – VMware began selling VMware workstations, allowing users to set up virtual machines.

2006 – Amazon Web Services was launched as a free service.

2010 – The first solutions for 100 Gigabit Ethernet were introduced.

2012-2015 – Smartphones became widely used and replaced desktop internet as the largest source of user data generation.

2012 – The Meshartility agreement was signed between energy suppliers and the governments of 12 EU member countries to allow the sharing of big data generated by these entities.

2012 – Duke Energy sponsored the Data Modeling and Analytics Initiative calling big data vendors to analyse their data sets and bring out insights.

2014 – Several utilities adopted big data analytics primarily to report peak load event information to consumers.

2015 – Google and Microsoft led massive build outs for data centres in the US.

2017 – Huawei, Tencent, and Alibaba led massive build outs for data centres in China.

2018 – Leading data centre operators started migrating to 400G data speed leading to faster and more effective real-time big data analytics.

2019 – China unveiled an energy big data centre in northeastern China to ensure efficient operation of electricity in Heilongjiang, Jilin, and parts of Inner Mongolia.

This is an edited extract from the Big Data in Utilities – Thematic Research report produced by GlobalData Thematic Research.