This talk introduce the view of the European Technology Platform NESSI (Networked European Software and Services Initiative)on big data. Big Data is an important innovation driver arising from the explosion of available data due to new social behaviors, societal transformations and the spread of software systems throughout all economic sectors. This driver relies on disruptive technologies (such as new storage architecture, Cloud Computing, IoT and Analytics) accompanied by a simultaneous awareness and intake regarding the importance of the use of large amounts of data. Data as such is acquiring economic importance and strategic value. Analysis of data (big data analytics) allows to extract non-trivial information which would not be otherwise accessible. This affects all software-intensive industry sectors but also public services. In this perspective, NESSI seeks to contribute to address the challenges rising from the use of Big Data and how to overcome those in order to enable new technical and business opportunities for Europe’s software industry and economic sectors.