The insurance industry is data-dependent. Today, carriers and intermediaries are engaged in improving data capture to help them to better manage their business, manage their risk and know their customers. Business and regulatory drivers are pushing the industry to manage its data better. Recently, though, one of the most talked about trends in IT is Big Data. Some commentators and vendors have attached great promise to the capabilities of Big Data, even arguing that other data types are no longer necessary. In this paper, ACORD and MarkLogic demystify some of the hype around Big Data and provide a pragmatic review of the technologies available and their strengths and weaknesses.