Big Data Still Faces a Few Hitches
December 15, 2013
Writer Mellisa Tolentino assesses the state of big data in, “Big Data Economy: The Promises + Hindrances of BI, Advanced Analytics” at SiliconAngle. Pointing to the field’s expected $50 billion in revenue by 2017, she says the phenomenon has given rise to a “Data Economy.” The article notes that enterprises in a number of industries have been employing big data tech to increase their productivity and efficiency.
However, there are still some wrinkles to be ironed out. One is the cumbersome process of pulling together data models and curating data sources, a real time suck for IT departments. This problem, though, may find resolution in nascent services that will take care of all that for a fee. The biggest issue may be the debate about open source solutions.
The article explains:
“Proponents of the open-source approach argue that it will be able to take advantage of community innovations across all aspects of product development, that it’s easier to get customers especially if they offer fully-functioning software for free. Plus, they say it is easier to get established partners that could easily open up market opportunities.
Unfortunately, the fully open-source approach has some major drawbacks. For example, the open-source community is often not united, making progress slower. This affects the long-term future of the product and revenue; plus, businesses that offer only services are harder to scale. As for the open core approach, though it has the potential to create value differentiation faster than the open source community, experts say it can easily lose its value when the open-source community catches up in terms of functionality.”
Tolentino adds that vendors can find themselves in a reputational bind when considering open source solutions: If they eschew the open core approach, they may be seen as refusing to support the open source community. However, if they do embrace open source solutions, some may accuse them of taking advantage of that community. Striking the balance while doing what works best for one’s company is the challenge.
Cynthia Murrell, December 15, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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