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As the big data industry finished off another year in 2013, many industry leaders, industry watchers, market intelligence firms, and the media started speculating about the forthcoming trends of 2014. If you have the time and patience to sieve through the huge pile of press releases, articles, pod casts, or blog posts dedicated to 2014 market and technology trends in the big data industry, you may simply lose your mind because the volume and variety of opinions and predictions are so high.
To make matters simple, this post has gleaned the most common predictions from a wide variety of sources, and shortlisted three or four credible experts in the field of data science and big data industrynamely, IBM as the global industry leader steering the big data applications industry, Datanamian impartial news portal focused on providing the latest insights and analysis about emerging trends and solutions in big data, and IDC, along with IIA two global providers of market intelligence in the field of information technology. While short-listing sources, the author of this post also shortlisted the top five or six, big-data technology or market trends, which overlapped in most of the review literature. These common trends seem to be the most voted in 2014, and the corroborative claims from the three or four, pre-selected sources further strengthen their worth.
Prediction No. 1: A conscious move away from data science and machine learning
This prediction seems a little unsettling as more and more organizations are relying on the proven expertise of data scientists to solve day-to-day enterprise problems. In fact, both the academia and the industry have stepped up their activities to bridge the current talent gap in the workplace. While one school of thought is preaching more data science in the workplace, a counter wave of opinions seems to suggest the emergence of more smart apps and software to steadily replace data scientists from the enterprise big-data scene. Datanami thinks this trend of smart software apps will dominate in 2014; but IBM and IIA think differently!
IBM predicts that the large enterprises will all hire Chief Data Officers (CDO) in 2014 to manage the enterprise data centers. To strengthen its view, IBM cites Gartner statistics that show some 100-plus CDOs engaged in large enterprises today. IIA predicts that we will see a continued move to machine learning and automation to keep pace with speed and volume of data, which you can find in 2014 big data market predictions by IDC and IIA .
Given the complexity of industrial data, and the demand for the speedy execution of solutions, a more balanced approach may be to bring data science and big data analytics into the mainstreamto create more real-time data capturing methods and more smart apps, so that the reliance on data centers or data scientists is suitably reduced. Given the current short supply of experienced data scientists, this may not be a bad approach.
Prediction No. 2: BYOD is not a lasting frenzy
As mobile devices have severe technology limitations on writing data, their popularity as big data analytics tools on the go is short-lived. Also, mobile devices are vulnerable to security attacks. Datanami believes that mobile devices will continue to dominate but in a new avatar, meaning mobile technologies will have to adapt to stringent, security and privacy needs of organizational data.
Prediction No. 3: Business intelligence (BI) will be embedded on smart systems
IIA thinks that as organizations expect more visible value in their big data analytics, they will invest on embedded big data analytics in operational systems and processes to derive insights or business intelligence. This prediction however, is in direct contrast to what IIA has predicted for machine learning. (See No. 1 Prediction)
Refocusing, sales forces may manage their customer relationships through embedded, smart apps with built-in analytics to make decisions. Progressively, smart software in mobile and enterprise systems will make decisions and make data scientists redundant.
Datanami believes there is a strong possibility for this trend to thrive in 2014. The current year will witness a move away from specialized data science services and personnel to operational systems with built-in smart, analytics software.
IBM thinks that smarter, big data apps will gradually improveproviding support to solve complex, industrial big data problems.
Prediction No. 4: Less relational SQL, more NoSQL
In Datanamis predictions for 2014 big data technology, you will find that SQL also limits the type of analysis. An over emphasis on SQL will delay organizations fully leveraging the value of their data and delay reactions. 2014 will move away from relational SQL.
Datanami predicts that the past trend of dealing with huge amounts of unstructured or loosely structured data with NoSQL will remain in 2014. IBM thinks that in 2014, businesses will exploit different big data technologies to make the most of structured and unstructured data coming from social media, mobile devices, and the real-time sensors.
Prediction No. 5: Hadoop will shift to real-time processing
As the general trend towards real-time data captures and processing is enabled through sensors, smart apps, and embedded BI, Hadoop will have to be reengineered and remolded to fit into the new ecosystem of 2014. The launch of Hadoop version 2 in late 2013 brought out more real-time processing engines.
IDC forecasts that the traditional database technology (RDBMS) will probably co-exist with the newer Hadoop ecosystem and NoSQL databases.
In Datanamis predictions for 2014 big data technology, you can review the following comment about Hadoops future:
Hadoop is (in) the midst of a massive makeover that will see it emerge as a speedy, real-time hub of information for the corporate datacenteran enterprise data hub, if you willprovided its handlers adhere to the corporate standards of normalization, auditability, and security.
While IBM forecasts 6 big data trends for 2014, the company harps on the fact that though companies will tend to invest in big data platforms in 2014, they will make a greater effort to build security, privacy, and governance policies into their big data processes.
Prediction No. 6: The rage of 2014 Industrial Internet
IDC was perhaps talking about 2014 when it predicted that the proliferation of sensor, mobile, wearable, and embedded devices (Internet of Things) will become a significant driver of the big data market. Read 2014 big data market predictions by IDC and IIA.
Organizations are patiently waiting for the day when business data will be captured through sensors every 10 minutes in their operational processes! This is predictably, the biggest reality of 2014. As GE has made a worldwide impact by leading the industrial internet movement, now more than ever enterprises are realizing the immense potential of real-time analytics, especially in industry sectors where machines are on running mode.
Datanami thinks that industrial internet will proliferate at a rapid rate in 2014. IIA thinks that GE has been the poster child for this movement, which will ultimately lead to the digitization of everything.
IBM nicely sums it all up by commenting that business decisions will be derived from analytics based on day-to-day business operations, machine-to-machine processes, and management systems.
IDCs predictions for the big data market in 2014:
- IDC predicts that the market for big data including servers, storage, software, and services will reach $16.1 billion in 2014, growing 6 times faster than the overall IT market.
- IDC predicts that cloud infrastructure will be the fastest-growing sub-segment of the big data market, with a 2013-2017 CAGR of close to 50%.
- Both IDC and IIA predict that the approved method of combating talent shortage in big data market will be re-skilling in-house analysts and data scientists.
View the above predictions in 2014 big data market predictions by IDC and IIA.
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