Big data analytics and cloud computing: Two IT initiatives which are high in the priority list of organizations across the globe.
Reason:
On one hand where big data analytics provides valuable insights for business intelligence, competitive advantage, new innovation and increased revenues; cloud based application development enhances business agility, efficiency and productivity at reduced costs.
As a result, organizations have been exploring ways to derive meaningful analytics from the big data that respond to real business needs. And since cloud computing has shown significant improvement and benefit over time, it makes sense that organizations are choosing cloud computing for supporting their big data projects.
In the words of Nick Hardiman – ‘’Clusters of servers are required to support the tools for processing the large volumes of big data. Clouds are already deployed on several servers and networking resources and can scale up or down as needed. Result: Cloud computing offers an effective way to support big data technologies and other advanced analytics applications.’’
Establishing this context further, GigaSpaces has conducted a survey: 80 percent of IT executives who think big data processing is important are considering moving their big data analytics to one or more cloud delivery models.
Cloud delivery models offer exceptional flexibility, which allows the IT to use the best approaches for meeting business user’s request. So organizations possessing an internal private cloud can add big data analytics to their in-house offerings. Further it can opt for a hybrid cloud that protects sensitive data in the private cloud, but also takes advantage of external data sources and applications available in public clouds.
Below enlisted are a few benefits of using cloud infrastructure for big data analytics:
1. Cost-Effective: Private clouds enable the companies to implement big data analytics in-house, while augmenting internal resources with public cloud services.
Companies can also use the hybrid cloud option where they can use on-demand storage space and computing power for certain analytics initiatives. Not to forget the added benefit of capacity and scalability as needed.
2. Mix of internal and external resources: Enterprises can keep their most sensitive data in-house, while the remaining big data (owned by the organization or generated by third-party and public providers) can be located externally in a cloud environment. Moving relevant data behind the organizational firewall can be a significant step towards the security and confidentiality of information.
However, cloud-based big data analytics is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
According to the experts, to unlock the potential of big data in clouds – organizations need to weigh factors of workload, cost, security, and data interoperability. Based on their individual needs and budgets they can choose among three different cloud delivery models:
• Private cloud to mitigate risk and maintain control
• Public cloud to further enhance scalability
• Hybrid model that combines private and public cloud resources and services.
Big Data: acting as a catalyst in Cloud adoption among businesses
A survey report published on CloudComputingNews blog has stated that in the coming years, big data will prove to be a game changer in cloud based software development.
Taking excerpts from there, here is a synopsis:
Technology Business Review study: big data analytics has played a crucial role in increasing the revenues of cloud service providers over the past few years. In fact wide scale adoption of big data analytics is one of the key reasons that the cloud became $15.1 billion market in the fourth quarter of 2013.
TBR Report: Looking at the present phenomenon, most renowned cloud service providers have started using big data analytics to analyze:
• Data stored
• Number of modules deployed
• Frequency of usage.
The objective is to find the patterns of usage that helps them identify the right tools and products to cross-sell to their customers. Such a method is increasing average revenue per customer which directly is driving further cloud usage across enterprises.
Noticing the massive rise in cloud adoption due to big data analytics, Verizon too has conducted a research. Its key findings include:
All businesses are experiencing information overload. Without specialized tools, they are being unable to make sense of the different data in order to arrive at an intelligent solution. It is precisely at this juncture, that cloud computing is coming into play. Cloud computing models are accelerating the potential for scalable analytics solutions. They are rendering flexibility and efficiencies for – accessing key data, delivering crucial insights, and driving value for further business growth.
IDC Report: Cloud market is expected to grow as much as $107 billion by 2017. And as evident, one of the major drivers for this growth will be the rise in big data. With big data analytics being extensively deployed by cloud service providers, the time is near when big data and cloud will complement the growth of each other.
