Service providers predict SMB large data cloud analysis requirements

Editor's note: In the first part of a series on large data analysis in cloud computing, several cloud-computing providers discuss emerging opportunities that they see in the large data analysis of midsize enterprise cloud computing.

Service providers are hesitant to claim that big data analysis will be the next driver of cloud computing, but they still think that the intersection of cloud computing and big Data has created some opportunities. The combination of resource pools, barrier-free access, and cost savings makes cloud computing an attractive hub for large data applications, with several cloud-computing providers making the statement at the Cloud Expo 2012 Trade Fair recently held in New York.

"For large data analysis applications to function properly, there is a need for a large number of storage devices and a large amount of computing resources that are not intended or capable of being purchased by every user," said Jason Mendenhall, cloud computing and data executive vice president at Las Vegas Switch communications. Switch Communications is a company that hosts several large cloud computing vendors and runs a 24PB hadoop test environment. "Cloud computing allows for the existence of real large data analysis applications. ”

Large data analysis (i.e., rapid implementation of terabytes to petabytes of massive unstructured data to identify patterns and improve business policies) is the first consideration for the largest scale enterprises, not least because they are the only ones able to afford the infrastructure necessary to support applications. All along, smaller companies do not have a large amount of data of considerable size.

But now cloud computing providers generally believe that there are several trends, such as mobility, machine to machine (machine-to-machine) communications and social networks, that will cause the rapid expansion of global data. Everything seems so dramatic, cloud computing vendors will be required for large data analysis applications to predict midrange applications. The high cost of infrastructure products that vendors want to support the internal large data architecture can prompt those customers to look for alternatives based on cloud computing.

"We aim at a large data analysis application," said Henry Fastert, chief technical expert and management partner at Shi International, a large vendor, management services Provider (MSP) and cloud computing provider at Somerset, New Jersey. "Cloud computing is the perfect platform to do this because you can organize a lot of virtual machines to run in clusters." Now, of course, you can do this by buying the infrastructure, but once you start talking about the type and number of physical infrastructure you buy, the price becomes expensive. Small companies simply cannot afford the cost. ”

Big Data and Cloud analysis: everything is possible.

The Shi International Research and Development Laboratory is designing a large data cloud analysis service to add the service to its infrastructure, service (IaaS) portfolio, Fastert said. The service is expected to be launched in early 2013 and its product positioning is targeted at small and medium-sized Enterprises (SMB).

"Small and medium businesses have exactly the same needs as any other company, but there are far fewer resources to do that type of task," he said. "Most of the potential market share in this area is still in the blanks. ”

While At&t does not specialize in midrange products for large data cloud analysis, it acknowledges that cloud computing helps service providers discover new categories of large data customers.

"Cloud computing is a great equalizer," said Steve Caniano, vice president of At&t's hosting, Applications and cloud computing services. "Without cloud computing, you have to have an IT department with a lot of highly skilled people, spend a lot of money and a data center to deploy large devices such as supercomputers, or pay a consulting firm to help you do this kind of work." It all sounds very time-consuming and expensive. At least in many ways, I think cloud computing provides a level playing field for everyone.

Cloud computing is one of several "transformative" technologies that drive large data analysis applications in the mid-tier market, said Jonathan King, vice president of Cloud Computing Solutions at Savvis Inc. The hosting and cloud computing provider located in Saint Louis recently announced a strategic partnership with Hortonworks, a large data platform provider based on the development of business software products for Hadoop.

"Now, everything is possible," Kins said. "To get a lot of computing resources, you need to run a variety of task types, which can be costly to run before." But once the cost of computing falls, you will have many competitors (such as Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn) starting to develop analytics tools in their larger environments and then open source tools.

"Then you're going to build ubiquitous connectivity access points, smartphones, and more data points." Now, all that is assembled is not big data, "he added. "The big data is showing," How do we use all this information to solve the problem? Connecting to cloud computing is the cloud that helps connect to many-I'm sorry, a lot of words can be lied to-connect to the information wave. ”

Not all vendors see opportunities for large Data cloud computing applications. However, not every vendor is convinced that large data cloud computing is a common trend. Joseph Corvaia, a cloud-computing vice president for Evolve IP, a cloud-computing provider based in Pennsylvania State Wayne, says big data helps customers find more examples of cloud users. At this point, however, very few people are able to see strategically two technologies.

"There's a lot of hype around the concept of big data right now, but in fact not everyone has big data," Corvaia said. "I think small and medium enterprises, in the vast majority of cases, do not need to do large data analysis, they realize that there are many other ways for us to use cloud computing." ”

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)