Thanks Olga for posing this insightful and important question to our community.  A couple of interesting thoughts... 

While "big data" has been a term that we have used for many years now, the concept of "unstructured data", while spoken about in the past, has really gained prominence based upon social media and use of the Internet in general (which have largely contributed to the creation of big data).  Looking back in time just a few short years ago (maybe as short as 2-3 years) these concepts would have often been labeled as interesting R&D efforts, complete with many legitimate questions around potential business value or financial returns. 

My belief is that the convergence of big unstructured data is already emerging as a key strategic priority for many companies, especially those in consumer-facing industries.  While we are, as an IT industry, at the beginning of developing the necessary methods and tools (and people with the requisite skills to use them) to make convergence happen, there is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel and it is in fact a very large train coming at us. 

Another interesting aspect of this conversation is the shift that these technologies will enable - from the more traditional batch-driven data collection approach that creates historical perspective from which we create future campaigns to fine tune our product offerings and service levels, to a 21st century real-time view of what our individual customers are doing and saying now, which then inform actions to be taken now by business and IT professionals to enhance the customer experience (and our bottom line) today.  Listen to the Center's June 22nd virtual roundtable with Ari Lightman (CMU), Ken Spangler (FedEx Ground) and Marc Brown (Del Monte) entitled "Getting Value From Social Media and Unstructured Data: The New Unified View", for further  insights into what some industry leaders are already doing in this space.

This technology-enabled shift in how we think and work will transform marketing, sales and service models from traditionally segmented campaign-driven (read "batch") approaches to a more focused and individualized model (read "segment of one")  - the holy grail of many enterprises big and small.

Driven by the convergence of big unstructured data, we are clearly at an inflection point and we as business and IT professionals, as always, have choices.  We know the train is coming - need I say more?