‘Tis the season when temperatures tumble, shoppers stumble, and prognosticators fumble, often. Will these big data prophecies come true?
How will big data evolve in 2014? The long run is anyone’s guess, needless to say, but we thought we’d compile a delectable holiday assortment of prognostications from executives working within the big data trenches. So without further delay, here they’re — six big data predictions for next year:
1. “More Hadoop projects will fail than succeed.”
That scary assessment is from Gary Nakamura, CEO of Concurrent, an incredible data application platform company. In a December 12 blog post, Nakamura made a number of 2014 forecasts, including this not-so-rosy assessment of Hadoop:
“More Hadoop projects might be swept under the rug as businesses devote major resources to their big data projects before doing their due diligence, which ends up in a costly, disillusioning project failure. We would possibly not hear about some of the failures, obviously, however the successes will clearly demonstrate the significance of using the perfect tools. The proper big data toolkit will enable organizations to simply carry forward the success of those projects, in addition to further insert their value into their business processes for market advantage.”
[Who’re next year’s rising stars in business intelligence? Read 2014 BI Outlook: Who’s Hot, Who’s Not.]
2. Enterprises will focus less on big data and more on stepping up their data management game.
“There is no doubt that companies’ pursuits of giant data initiatives have the precise intentions to enhance operational decision making around the enterprise. That being said, companies shouldn’t get stuck at the term ‘big data.’ The real initiative and what they ultimately must be keen on is how they’re implementing better data management practices that account for the range and complexity of the knowledge being acquired for analysis,” Scott Schlesinger, a senior vp for consulting and outsourcing giant Capgemini, told InformationWeek via email.
3. The pace of huge data innovation within the open-source community will accelerate in 2014.
“New open-source projects like Hadoop 2.0 and YARN, because the next-generation Hadoop resource manager, will make the Hadoop infrastructure more interactive. New open-source projects like STORM, a streaming communications protocol, will enable more real-time, on-demand blending of knowledge inside the big data ecosystem,” wrote Quentin Gallivan, CEO of economic analytics software firm Pentaho, in a December 5 blog post.
4. The will for automated tools becomes increasingly critical.
“Apparently the more data we’ve, the more we would like,” John Joseph, VP of product marketing for analytics software firm Lavastorm Analytics told InformationWeek via email. “But as data volumes increase, the will for pattern matching, simulation, and predictive analytics technologies become more crucial. Engines which will automatically sift during the growing mass of knowledge, identify issues or opportunities, or even take automated action to capitalize on those findings may be a need.”
5. Beware, Oracle! 2014 would be the year of SQL on Hadoop.
“i feel you will see people start building interactive applications at the Hadoop infrastructure. And what I mean by that — and that i think here’s some of the controversial thing — is that folks will start replacing their first-generation relational databases with SQL on Hadoop,” said Monte Zweben, CEO of SQL-on-Hadoop database startup Splice Machine, in a phone interview with InformationWeek.
6. Big data flies to the cloud.
“Big data has gained lots of traction in 2013 but complex technologies are keeping many businesses from getting their solutions into production and generating a good ROI. In 2014, businesses will look beyond the hype and switch to cloud solutions that generate fast time to price and don’t require highly specialized dedicated skill sets, like Hadoop, to regulate. 2014 could be the year that massive data moves from buzzword to business imperative,” said Sandy Steier, cofounder and CEO of cloud-based analytics firm 1010data, via email.
Jeff Bertolucci is a technology journalist in L. a. who writes mostly for Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, the Saturday Evening Post, and InformationWeek.
IT groups need data analytics software that’s visual and accessible. Vendors are becoming the message. Also within the State Of Analytics issue of InformationWeek: SAP CEO envisions a younger, greener, cloudier company. (Free registration required.)
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