Informatica Chairman Shares Vision On Future of Big Data Growth Driven by Cloud, Social and Mobile Computing

Informatica’s CEO described Big Data as the synergistic confluence of three distinct but related trends: Big Transaction Data, Big Interaction Data and Big Data Processing. Abbasi noted that Big Data is being driven by the nexus of three secular technology megatrends – Cloud Computing, Social Computing and Mobile Computing.

"Cloud computing, by changing the economics of computing, enables even more transaction data to be cost-effectively captured by Cloud service providers," explained Abbasi. "Social computing, by enabling the next generation of data-centric applications, represents unprecedented volumes of interaction data. And, finally, mobile computing, by empowering users with context-aware and location-based services, represents the next surge in device sensor interaction data. These secular technology megatrends are driving Big Data – larger volumes, broader variety, higher velocity and more business value. In other words, Big Data is here to stay!"

Abbasi highlighted the key innovations within each of three technology trends – Big Transaction Data, Big Interaction Data and Big Data Processing – to empower the data-centric enterprise.

Big Transaction Data

"The goal of an OLTP database is to cost-effectively capture more data in less time," said Abbasi. "Over the past 25 years, the combination of innovations in hardware and database software has dramatically improved transaction processing price-performance by an incredible 100,000 fold. The goal of an analytic database is to cost-effectively deliver better analysis in less time. And, over the same 25-year period, driven by innovations in database software, hardware and storage, we have witnessed a stunning price-performance improvement of a million fold. Undoubtedly, the growth of transactions was fueled by dramatic economies of innovation. And business analytics are the rave right now. Organizations can more effectively refine their strategies and adapt their tactics with business analytics of their transaction data," explained Abbasi.

Big Interaction Data

Abbasi continued, "The role of business computing has changed from automating transactions to facilitating interactions. Social computing represents the next wave of data-centric applications capturing interactions with social networking services such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. And, mobile computing represents the next surge in data-access devices capturing device sensor interactions such as location data. Adoption of social computing and mobile computing are further driving higher volumes and even greater variety of data. The value proposition of business computing is shifting beyond operational efficiency to organizational effectiveness. And to facilitate organizational effectiveness, organizations are moving beyond business management to brand management. Social media enables holistic brand management, including proactive customer engagement and consumer sentiment analysis. To gain a competitive advantage, organizations now aspire to become social enterprises."

Big Data Processing

"The third mega trend, big data processing, helps organizations cost effectively process enormous volumes of data," Abbasi highlighted. "The latest open source technology, Hadoop, is designed for highly scalable processing. The primary strength of Hadoop is proven cost-effective scalability by leveraging commodity hardware. The Informatica Platform provides connectors to move data into and out of the Hadoop file system, the highly scalable open source technology stack. Analytics based on timely, relevant and trustworthy data unlocks the business value of Big Data," said Abbasi.

Abbasi closed by emphasizing the importance of a business-value led approach to Big Data. Abbasi concluded, "Big Data will live up to the lofty expectations only by maximizing return on data to deliver business value."