Four Steps to a Big Data Strategy
CSC announced that it has acquired Infochimps, provider of a platform that combines an open source NoSQL database and Hadoop to deliver a streaming analytics application via the cloud.
According to Infochimps CEO Jim Kaskade, the combination of CSC and Infochimps will rapidly extend CSC’s nascent effort to build out a Big Data analytics service that customers can invoke on demand. Kaskade says the majority of customers will be able to just access a Big Data analytics capability instead of having to acquire someone with special expertise to do so.
That doesn’t mean every element of a Big Data analytics environment needs to run in the cloud, says Kaskade, but having access to an elastic Big Data analytics service in the cloud is going to be a key component of most hybrid cloud computing strategies.
Systems integrators, such as CSC, view the cloud as an opportunity to transform the way they deliver services either by acquiring cloud application vendors or licensing software that enables them to deliver a specific capability. In either scenario the systems integrator essentially morphs into becoming a new type of cloud service provider and is often aggregating other infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platforms in the cloud to deliver that capability.
The end result is a wider array of cloud application services that are more accessible to a broader number of organizations. Given all the interest in Big Data analytics, it’s clear that these applications are going to be among the first opportunities that systems integrators are going to seize in the cloud.
The degree to which systems integrators will transform their business models in the age of the cloud remains to be seen. But the one thing that is for certain is that the relationship between customers, systems integrators and the rest of the IT industry will never be the same.
