Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of data-management software maker Informatica (Nasdaq: INFA) look lost and confused today, falling as far as 15.5% overnight on heavy volume.

So what: Storage specialist NetApp (Nasdaq: NTAP), which should know a thing or two about the demand for data-intensive technologies, just reported earnings with a somewhat glum view of the coming quarter. As a direct result, Big Data vendors from Informatica and Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) to Teradata (NYSE: TDC) and Tibco Software (Nasdaq: TIBX) are plunging like there's no tomorrow.

Now what: NetApp didn't actually predict the end of the world last night -- just a temporary slowdown based on an uncertain economy. We've heard that song before, and a lot of these worries should already have been priced into technology vendors of all stripes. Day traders may want to stay out of this market for a while, but for the long-term investors among us, this looks like a terrific time to build a portfolio. For more information on how Big Data is changing the face of business and becoming absolutely essential to modern IT shops, grab a copy of this free report. You'll be glad you did, and it comes with absolutely no strings attached.

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