When the oil tycoon John Paul Getty was asked about his rules for success, he reportedly said, “Rise early, work hard, strike oil.”

I've written in the past that big data is a big deal, and in the words of marketing technology specialist Robert Cole, "too bad the vast majority of business leaders have no cluewhat it is, how to use it, or why it's important to their businesses."

Cutting-edge entrepreneurs are stepping up to crunch the vast (and ever-growing) stockpile of information too large for companies to store and analyze in-house.