Software Lets You Spin Private-Cloud Big Data Clusters

Five Tips for Taking Control of Cloud Chaos

Not all organizations are moving to the external cloud. Some data and applications are going from public to private clouds, said Seth Robinson, senior director of technology analysis at CompTIA.

As I wrote yesterday, CompTIA released its Fifth Annual Trends in the Cloud report, which queried 400 businesses and 400 individuals on cloud adoption. I’ve covered the integration aspects, but here’s something else worth noting: While cloud adoption is becoming more mainstream, at least some adopters are opting to move data to internal clouds.

“It’s not that everything is funneling into major cloud providers,” Robinson said. “Companies have different requirements for different pieces of their architecture, and they are finding where those pieces fit best between all these models that are out there. Companies are going to keep moving that way.”

Recently, I spoke with Kumar Sreekanti, CEO and founder of BlueData, a start-up company that targets companies that want a Big Data experience on an internal cloud.

The company came out of a two-year stealth mode in September, releasing its Epic Enterprise software and Epic One, a full-feature community edition. The software allows you to create a virtual cluster — in-house, on-commodity hardware — to run Big Data applications.

Epic can run multi-tenant clusters, as well, and allows you to point to data without requiring you to move it, he explained.

“We make it easy for data scientists or users to get that Amazon-like experience to spin up a big data like environment,” Sreekanti said.

EPIC Enterprise is a software platform that organizations deploy on commodity hardware to create a Big Data Private Cloud. The download includes five physical nodes for free. In addition, there’s also EPIC One, a full-featured community edition for developers and data scientists that allows users to experience the power of multi-app, multi-version instant clusters on a single physical node.

Loraine Lawson is a veteran technology reporter and blogger. She currently writes the Integration blog for IT Business Edge, which covers all aspects of integration technology, including data governance and best practices. She has also covered IT/Business Alignment and IT Security for IT Business Edge. Before becoming a freelance writer, Lawson worked at TechRepublic as a site editor and writer, covering mobile, IT management, IT security and other technology trends. Previously, she was a webmaster at the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and a newspaper journalist. Follow Lawson at Google+ and on Twitter.