For those organizations that understand and embrace the new reality of Big Data, the possibilities for new innovation, improved agility, and increased profitability are nearly endless. Moreover, while software and hardware get all the headlines, skills gaps, big data processes and services (both internal and outsourced) to exploit value from data will consume the majority of spending in the big data space.

Note that Hadoop, as an open-source solution, presents a relatively inexpensive and effective proposition to organizations moving to Big Data adoption. It is quickly deployed and scales to the challenge that growing data presents. Projections that feature the growth of these technologies therefore are not surprising. More relevant is the reinforcement that Big Data revenues are projected to increase exponentially. Wikibon again has been ahead of the curve with their own market analysis that addressed the growing market and featured a 5-year market forecast.

“The Big Data market is exploding, not only in terms of marketing hype but also in real revenue. While reasonable people can debate definitions and overall market sizes, one thing is clear – Big Data is a large and fast growing market. For IT practitioners it means investigating ways in which you can monetize data sources at your organizations and obtaining the skills necessary to achieve that objective. For the vendor community it means you need to have a story around Big Data that is credible with a roadmap that offers clear business value and flexibility to move with this fast-growing space.”

It is very hard to top the significance of that last paragraph. To this observer, it is clear that we will see continued reports espousing the market explosion of data technologies in this space, but even more significantly, we will witness increasing mainstream discussion and statistics to follow that focus on the tangible financial benefits and widespread adoption.