In recent years, a real tsunami has flooded many human activities. Genomics, Astronomy, Particle Physics and Social Sciences are just a few examples of fields which have been intensively invaded by a massive amount of data coming from simulation, experiments or exploration. This huge pile of data requires a new way to deal with, a real paradigmatic shift respect to the past as for theories, technologies or approaches in data management. This work outlines the current wave front of Big Data, starting from a possible characterization of this new paradigm to its most compelling applications and tools, with an exploratory research of Big Data challenges in manufacturing engineering