Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2016. Read them in this 8th Annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Charlie Silver, CEO of Algebraix Data
3 Big Data Trends for 2016
The number of data scientists has doubled over the last four
years, the number of job
postings for data scientists is soaring, and those jobs pay well.
All signs point to the fact that data analytics skills are in high demand. With
so much interest and activity in the space, the ecosystem around Big Data is
evolving fast. Let's take a look at the top 3 trends for Big Data in 2016.
1. The cost of Big Data analytics will drop
Just a few years ago, only large enterprises with sizeable budgets
could afford to build internal databases and process their data. As a result,
Big Data was out-of-reach for most businesses. Today this is no longer the
case. The "Big Data Revolution" not only means an explosion of data, but also
an explosion of tools and technologies to make sense of it. The cost of Big
Data -- gathering it, storing it, analyzing it-- is going down, and will continue
to do so. This will open up its capabilities and potential to a broader swath
of businesses, across sectors and sizes.
2. SQL will become the dominant query language for NoSQL Big Data
implementations
NoSQL databases became popular for a while, replacing SQL with
their own special purpose query languages. NoSQL rose to popularity because the
massive amounts of data generated during the era of Web 2.0 did not work well
with relational database systems, like SQL.
However, the tide is turning once again. A
recent developer survey from Stack Overflow found that SQL is
one of the most popular languages, as well as one of the most lucrative.
Generations of computer scientists focused their careers on relational
databases and that collective knowledge is extremely valuable. The SQL
ecosystem is maturing, which will cause developers to move away from the
immature query languages created around NoSQL databases, and return to using
SQL as the query language, even for NoSQL databases. For further proof,
consider that the term NoSQL has been extended to also include "Not Only
SQL", indicating support for SQL-based interfaces even if the core
database isn't relational.
3. Hadoop and associated technologies will grow by more than 100%,
mainly driven by the demand for Big Data analytics.
Allied
Market Research predicts that the global Hadoop market will
reach $50.2 billion by 2020. This rapid growth is driven by a "sudden spurt" in
demand for big data analytics, as outlined above. Consumers and businesses are
generating more data than ever before through their online activity, which now
includes desktops, as well as tablets, smartphones, wearables, and IOT devices.
Businesses are faced with a deluge of raw, structured and unstructured data.
This creates the strong need for affordable analytics, which Hadoop helps
provide. The interest in Hadoop will push it towards the mainstream for
enterprise analytics as SQL performance is improved.
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About the Author
Charles H.
Silver has been building companies and creating liquidity events for
shareholders for more than 25 years. In the late 1990s, as cofounder of
RealAge, Inc., he built the company from scratch, conceived its business plan,
raised over $15 million in capital, negotiated key strategic relationships and,
most important, positioned the company for profitability, which enabled it to
survive the dot-com bust. In 2007, RealAge was sold very successfully to
the Hearst Corporation.
Prior
to RealAge, Charles founded and built the Oil Dispatch franchise in Michigan.
It grew to be the largest independent quick-oil-change
operator in the state and was successfully sold to Jiffy Lube. After graduating
from the University of Michigan and prior to his entrepreneurial career,
Charles served for two years as a staff member in the United States Congress.
