Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

This article was originally published by arnnet.com and can be viewed in full here

Big Data had a profound impact on 2015, and will increasingly continue to do so into the future, according to MapR and Rackspace.

MapR CEO and co-founder, John Schroeder, how data is stored, analysed and processed is transforming businesses and the industry is in the midst of the biggest change in enterprise computing in decades. Schroeder claimed an acceleration in Big Data deployments has crystallised his view of market trends into five major predictions for 2016.

They include:

• Converged approaches become mainstream – Schroeder said in 2016, converged approaches will become mainstream as leading companies reap the benefits of combining production workloads with analytics to adjust to changing customer preferences, competitive pressures, and business conditions. This convergence speeds the “data to action” cycle for organisations and removes the time lag between analytics and business impact.
• The pendulum swings from centralised to distributed – Tech cycles have swung back and forth from centralised to distributed workloads, according to Schroeder. He claimed Big Data solutions initially focused on centralised data lakes that reduced data duplication, simplified management and supported a variety of applications including customer 360 analysis.

“However, in 2016, large organisations will increasingly move to distributed processing for Big Data to address the challenges of managing multiple devices, multiple datacentres, multiple global use cases and changing overseas data security rules,” he said.

The continued growth of IoT, cheap IoT sensors, fast networks, and edge processing will further dictate the deployment of distributed processing frameworks, he said.

• Storage (particularly flash) becomes an extremely abundant resource – Schroeder mentioned next-generation, software-based storage technology is enabling multi-temperature solutions.

As such, he claimed flash memory is a key technology that will enable new design for products in the consumer, computer and enterprise markets.

“Consumer demand for flash will continue to drive down its cost, and flash deployments in Big Data will begin to deploy. The optimal solution will combine flash and disk to support both fast and dense configurations.

“In 2016, this new generation of software-based storage that enables multi-temperature solutions will proliferate so organisations will not have to choose between fast and dense — they will be able to get both,” he added.

• “Shiny Object Syndrome” gives way to increased focus on fundamental value – Schroeder said in 2016, the market will focus much less on the latest and greatest “shiny object” software downloads, and more on proven technologies that provide fundamental business value.
• Markets experience a flight to quality – Schroeder also mentioned that in terms of Big Data technology companies, investors and organisations will turn away from volatile companies that have frequently pivoted in their business models. Instead, they will turn to focus on more secure options – those companies that have both a proven business model and technology innovations that enable improved business outcomes and operational efficiencies.

Rackspace senior director and general manager, Angus Dorney, claimed the focus will shift from Big Data to Small Data.

He attributed a finding of IDC, which claimed the Australian Big Data market is expected to grow to $US710 million in 2018, but while this market size is impressive, the company has found that the data available in enterprise vaults is so vast, that it is increasingly insufficient to provide any context for decision-making.

“We believe that the best sources of data could be exogenous, syndicated and open. In 2016 we can expect to see the emergence of Small Data,” he said.

In addition, he outlined four other predictions for the year ahead.

Dorney said co-opertition will become a reality as organisations have always needed and continue to demand more choice and flexibility from their vendors.

“While each Cloud vendor might love a world where customers only used their products, different outcomes require different tools and crucially they need to integrate too. It’s not about what the vendor wishes to push onto a customer, but what the customer wants to suit his or her business,” he said.

In addition, he said that in a world of extreme development lifecycles, DevOps will play a critical role in reconnecting developer and operations and accelerate time to market for their products and features.

“Through cultural and process changes, teams can deploy, scale and test new configurations in hours rather than days. According to our own study, 86 per cent of Australian businesses have, or are, planning to implement DevOps in 2015, and 71 per cent without a plan, planned on implementing one this year.”

He said in 2016, Australian companies will realise to the value of “curiosity”.

The Rackspace Curiosity Quotinent found that of the 44 per cent of respondents that agreed their organisations were curious, 84 per cent agreed curiosity played an important role in driving revenue. Meanwhile, the number dropped dramatically to 47 per cent in non-curious organisations. Similarly, in curious organisations, 84 per cent of respondents agreed they were more satisfied with their job, compared to 45 per cent in non-curious organisations.

“In 2016, we expect more businesses to open their eyes to the potential that comes with providing a Curious workplace. Organisations need to explore the values that drive Curiosity from deep within their employees, as well as the values the organisation overall deems important,” Dorney mentioned.

He also said the year will see even more, higher profile security hacks. He attributed a study by Deloitte, which stated that the average cost per data breach to Australian business is $2.5 million, while another by McAfee estimates that the cost to the global economy from cybercrime is anywhere from $US375 to $US575 billion per year.

“As hackers gather celebrity-like status, we’re seeing larger and more sophisticated hacking attempts occurring every day,” he added.

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