Who Asked for an Open Data Platform?

This is a joint blog post between Nick Heudecker and Merv Adrian. It’s Strata week here in San Jose, and with that comes a flood of new announcements on products, partners and funding. Today’s big announcement came in the form of the Open Data Platform (ODP). A number of companies have signed on, but inContinue reading “Who Asked for an Open Data Platform?”

Hortonworks IPO – Why Now?

Last week, many observers were surprised when Hortonworks’ S1 for an initial public offering (IPO) was filed. And there are good reasons to be surprised. Why now? CEO Rob Bearden told VentureWire not long ago that he expected to exit 2014 “at a strong $100 million run rate” in preparation for a 2015 IPO. What changed? PerhapsContinue reading “Hortonworks IPO – Why Now?”

Strata Spark Tsunami – Hadoop World, Part One

New York’s Javits Center is a cavernous triumph of form over function. Giant empty spaces were everywhere at this year’s empty-though-sold-out Strata/Hadoop World, but the strangely-numbered, hard to find, typically inadequately-sized rooms were packed. Some redesign will be needed next year, because the event was huge in impact and demand will only grow. A few ofContinue reading “Strata Spark Tsunami – Hadoop World, Part One”

Microsoft’s New CEO – What’s Next for Microsoft?

In the most profound change of leadership in Microsoft’s history, Satya Nadella, who was head of the Cloud and Enterprise division,  has taken the helm, succeeding Steve Ballmer. Nadella’s “insider” understanding of Microsoft’s culture and his effectiveness in cross-team communication and collaboration could help him reshape Microsoft for the digital era — which will beContinue reading “Microsoft’s New CEO – What’s Next for Microsoft?”

AAA is Not Enough Security in the Big Data Era

Talk to security folks, especially network ones, and AAA will likely come up. It stands for authentication, authorization and accounting (sometimes audit). There are even protocols such as Radius (Remote Authentication Dial In User Service, much evolved from its first uses) and Diameter, its significantly expanded (and punnily named) newer cousin, implemented in commercial andContinue reading “AAA is Not Enough Security in the Big Data Era”

Hadoop Summit Recap Part One – A Ripping YARN

I had the privilege of keynoting this year’s Hadoop Summit, so I may be a bit prejudiced when I say the event confirmed my assertion that we have arrived at a turning point in Hadoop’s maturation. The large number of attendees (2500, a big increase – and more “suits”) and sponsors (70, also a significant uptick) madeContinue reading “Hadoop Summit Recap Part One – A Ripping YARN”

Open Source “Purity,” Hadoop, and Market Realities

I don’t often do a pure opinion piece but I feel compelled to weigh in on a queston I’ve been asked several times since EMC released its Pivotal HD recently. The question is whether it is somehow inappropriate, even “evil,” for EMC to enter the market without having “enough” committers to open source Apache projects.Continue reading “Open Source “Purity,” Hadoop, and Market Realities”

Hadoop 2013 – Part Four: Players

The first three posts in this series talked about performance,  projects and platforms as key themes in what is beginning to feel like a  watershed year for Hadoop. All three are reflected in the surprising emergence of a number of new players on the scene, as well as some new offerings from additional ones, which I’ll cover in another post. Intel, WANdisco,Continue reading “Hadoop 2013 – Part Four: Players”

Hadoop 2013 – Part One: Performance

It’s no surprise that we’ve been treated to many year-end lists and predictions for Hadoop (and everything else IT) in 2013. I’ve never been that much of a fan of those exercises, but I’ve been asked so much lately that I’ve succumbed. Herewith, the first of a series of posts on what I see asContinue reading “Hadoop 2013 – Part One: Performance”

Hadoop and DI – A Platform Is Not A Solution

“Hadoop people” and “RDBMS people” – including some DBAs who have contacted me recently –  clearly have different ideas about what Data Integration is. And both may  differ from what Ted Friedman and I were talking about in our Gartner research note Hadoop Is Not a Data Integration Solution , although I think the DBAs’ concept isContinue reading “Hadoop and DI – A Platform Is Not A Solution”