As an emerging industry, big data still has a lot of Web professionals scratching their heads.
Most people tend to have some idea of what it is (large datasets that are too big for on-premises management tools or processing applications to handle, but that can provide valuable information if properly harnessed, shared and analyzed), but few know how they can utilize it, or how it can even be useful for their companies. Moreover, they don't even know where to turn to get their questions answered!
Big data is quickly turning into less of an enterprise-exclusive term, and as it becomes more and more of a reality for small and medium-sized businesses, they'll need to be aware of who the major players are in the industry, and what these big data companies can offer.
There are already a number of great companies in the space, such as Tableau, GoodData, DataSift and many others that each offer unique big data services to their customers. But for now, let's just start by looking closer at three of the biggest (and best) names in big data.
IBM
IBM is a longtime innovator in the technology industry, so it's no surprise that one of the world's largest and most successful computer companies would jump on the big data bandwagon right out of the gate. In particular, IBM has become a specialist in using analytics solutions to sift through huge datasets to find useful business insights. In its time working with big data, the company has created a huge portfolio of analytics resources. With IBM, companies can glean insights from new and emerging types of data and content, make their businesses more "agile" and answer questions that were once virtually out of reach.
Cloudera
Cloudera is a big data service that is built on the Apache Hadoop open source software framework and offers a single, integrated solution that lets its enterprise customers efficiently query all of their structured and unstructured data, allowing them to work "at the speed of thought" to rapidly build deep insights and create a competitive advantage on their way to becoming truly data-driven companies. The addition of Hadoop technology lets companies efficiently store, manage and analyze virtually unlimited amounts of data and put the right workloads into the right systems, as Hadoop can scale with almost no limits and handle any type of data, regardless of if how it may be encoded or formatted.
Splunk
Splunk focuses primarily on machine data, data that is generated by sensors or some other computer-automated process, which can be extremely valuable for many businesses. This platform is a leader in collecting, analyzing and visualizing massive streams of machine data that are generated by an IT system or technology infrastructure. Splunk also allows users to troubleshoot problems and investigate security "incidents" in just minutes, monitor their end-to-end infrastructure to avoid service degradation or outages and gain real-time visibility and insights into customer experiences, behaviors and transactions. It even makes a company's data accessible, usable and valuable to everyone in the organization.
