Hadoop Summit keynote preview: What is the point of Hadoop?

I am very pleased and honoured to have been asked to provide a keynote presentation at the inaugural Hadoop Summit Europe, which will be held in Amsterdam on March 20-21.

The title of my talk is “What is the point of Hadoop?” which isn’t as derogatory as it sounds. Our research suggests there are hundreds of potential workloads that are suitable for Hadoop, but three core roles:

  • Big data storage: Hadoop as a system for storing large, unstructured, data sets
  • Big data processing/integration: Hadoop as a data ingestion/ETL layer
  • Big data analytics: Hadoop as a platform new new exploratory analytic applications

The flexibility of Apache Hadoop is one of its biggest assets – enabling businesses to generate value from data that was previously considered too expensive to be stored and processed in traditional databases – but also results in Hadoop meaning different things to different people.

As early adopters press ahead with innovative new analytic applications, many mainstream enterprises are are still scratching their heads trying to demonstrate Hadoop’s value. While it is very tempting to try and run before you can walk when you see others demonstrating the potential for Hadoop-based analytics it is my view that trying to jump ahead to Hadoop-based analytics without first understanding Hadoop’s storage and integration roles runs the risk of confusion and, potentially, disillusionment.

My keynote presentation at Hadoop Summit Europe will explore the impact that Hadoop is having on the traditional data processing landscape, examining the expanding ecosystem of vendors and their relationships with Apache Hadoop, exploring adoption trends around the world, and highlighting how an understanding of the roles Hadoop can play will be essential to helping Hadoop cross the chasm from early adopters to mainstream adoption.

Anyone interested in attending the event can get a 20% discount, using the registration code 13aslett20.

The Data Day, Today: Jan 27 2012

Amazon launches AWS Storage Gateway. Postgres Plus Cloud Server. And more.

An occasional series of data-related news, views and links posts on Too Much Information. You can also follow the series @thedataday.

* Amazon Web Services Announces AWS Storage Gateway to Connect Enterprise Data with the Cloud

* EnterpriseDB Announces Availability of Postgres Plus Cloud Database

* Big VCs Invest In Big Data Startup Continuuity

* At Davos, Discussions of a Global Data Deluge

* Zimory Names New Head of zimory®scale; the Cloud Database Elasticity Division

* Jaspersoft’s Java Reporting Engine Integrated with Cloud Foundry

* IBM Debuts New Analytics Appliance to Help Retailers Transform Big Data Into Business Opportunities

* The Mass Technology Leadership Council published its report on big data and analytics.

* Apache HBase 0.92.0 has been released

* Is Security An Afterthought For NoSQL?

* What’s the big deal about Big Data?

* Hadoop Summit 2012 Announced to Showcase Apache Hadoop as Next Generation Enterprise Data Platform

* Announcing BigCouch 0.4

* Microsoft’s plan for Hadoop and big data

* Google Goes MoreSQL With Tenzing – SQL Over MapReduce

* Seismic Data Science: Reflection Seismology and Hadoop

* GoodData Posts Record-Breaking 600% Year-Over-Year Revenue Growth In 2011

* For 451 Research clients

# 2012 M&A Outlook – Software Assessing the runners and riders for M&A and IPOs in 2012

# RJMetrics scores $1.2m debt funding, sets out SaaS BI stall Impact report

* Google News Search outlier of the day: Pork Tenderloin: A Healthy Eating Hero

And that’s the Data Day, today.