And two-thirds of that, or 1.5 exabytes, was digital. Among this year's Top 50 elite, more than one-third are energy and finance companies. Those two sectors just happen to be two of the pioneers of data-mining technology. The technology is still fairly new, after all. But there's little doubt it is becoming a lucrative asset in the battle for market share.
Many companies refuse to discuss details, presumably for fear of tipping off rivals.
At Texaco Inc., data mining has clearly paid off in a big way. It played a key role in discovering the huge Agbami oil field off the coast of Nigeria, containing an estimated 1.45 billion barrels of oil. The telltale signs of oil were spotted by reassessing seismic data with Texaco's GeoProbe data-mining system, which uses animated images to help geologists sift out salient features. Traditional methods with static images had missed the oil. In finance, even small banks are joining the action.