Understanding Big Data Posted on : Jul 02 - 2015

Big Data is hot topic and touted as a new concept, but the notion of generating insights through masses of data has been around a while. From forecasting the weather, spotting fraudulent credit card transactions and even the humble Tesco Clubcard; Big Data has gone from esoteric to mainstream in the last decade.

In simple terms, “Big Data” refers to three “Vs”: velocity, verity and volume of data needed to carry out an analysis. While this could be 100,000 credit card transactions a second or a single large file from a weather satellite image; when you have a few of these “Vs” in a problem then it normally earns the Big Data moniker.

Although around for a while, IDC estimates that in 2015, the big data and analytics market will reach $125bn worldwide. Although a huge figure, some of this includes hardware that can serve other purposes than just big data projects. Also, some other industry watches place it much lower. Based on the IDC vision, the market is split roughly as 40 percent in software, and 30 percent each for hardware and services.

Market opportunity

With all these big numbers being bandied about, what’s in it for the channel? Underpinning Big Data is a whole layer of both common and less well-known technologies used mostly by larger organisations and innovative start-ups to solve problems or find insights. Some of these technologies like the Cray supercomputers used by the European Weather centre are refreshed on a decade long cycle and are typical of a HPC customer engagement.  View more