And by 2005, the average enterprise will be able to successfully manage 100 terabytes of data. The most aggressive firms will be attempting to manage 500 terabytes. Before we can answer these questions, we need to take a look at the sources behind the data explosion. A data management solution needs to integrate various sources of enterprise data. Customer touchpoints, such as the call center, supply data about customer behavior.
Some enterprises also integrate demographic data with their internal customer data.
All of these sources contribute to data growth, but the primary driver of data proliferation is e-business. As enterprises establish a presence on the web, they open up a whole new source of customer and operational data. Every time a web site visitor clicks on a link, makes a purchase, or submits a request for more information, a piece of data is recorded. The aggregate of all of a visitor's movements on a web site is called the clickstream. Clickstream data provides a record of customer behavior at a granular level of detail that has never before been possible.