As data volumes continue to grow rapidly, ways to store and analyze data more efficiently and cost effectivelyare being explored. More than 50% of organizations surveyed by Unisphere Research in August 2014 reported that they currently use cloud-based services. Another study found that the number of big data projects being planned or in production will triple over the next 18 months. As the worlds of big data and cloud computing converge, many businesses have begun to look for ways to utilize both together to create competitive advantages for themselves.
The key options, considerations and technologies for moving big data to the cloud, were examined in a recent DBTA roundtable webcast.
Moving big data to the cloud is not just a simple snap of the fingers. According to Ashish Thusoo CEO and co-founder of Qubole, a big data as a service provider, there are considerations for companies in moving their big data to the cloud that can include investment, execution, operation of a new technology, and the need to ensure accessibility to the cloud in the enterprise. But, he noted, there are benefits as well, which include an on-demand and turnkey infrastructure, flexibility in supporting different workloads, and better accessibility and self-service across multiple regions and geographies.
Rodan Zadeh, director of product marketing for Attunity, a provider of information availability software solutions, examined how some of the traditional methods of moving data such as ETL and cloud-to-cloud transfers do not work well because of how long they take. “It ends up that ETL uses more time on development than resolving problems,” explained Zadeh.
Data itself is changing and thus changing the way companies analyze and store it, pointed out Jon Bock, VP of products and marketing for Snowflake Computing, a cloud data warehousing company. Traditionally, he said, data would come from internal applications which allowed companies to have a good sense of the data’s behavior. “Today, there is a lot of data that actually starts in the cloud; it does not start in your own system. It is really important for you to be able to look at this data to understand what is going on,” stated Bock. The real challenge for organizations now is being able to combine their own data from internal systems with external data from the cloud.
To view the DBTA roundtable webinar, go here.