This week in Big Data: a high-profile cloud firm announced an analytics offering; an emerging Big Data developer secured funding, and MasterCard struck a services deal that sheds new light on the challenges of data science in the enterprise.

Apigee, the developer of an API management service used by major brands to optimize their web services, introduced a new offering named “Apigee Insights.” Users with deep enough pockets can leverage the service to monitor the data that flows through their APIs to identify patterns in traffic and information.

HStreaming also had a big update this week. The San Francisco firm announced that it has received an investment from Atlas Venture, a major venture capital firm that focuses on promising, early stage technology startups.

HStreaming offers a Hadoop-powered solution that is capable of carrying out both batch and real-time analytics on every type of data; structured as well as unstructured. The software is fully compatible with the most popular distributions on the market, which means that enterprises with existing Big Data deployments can safely buy into the technology without having to worry about integration.   The solution is available as a pay-as-a-you-go service on AWS, and as an on-premise platform.

The third and final Big Data highlight from this week is MasterCard’s big announcement. The credit company said that it will begin collaborating with Mu Sigma to deliver merchants insights into their customers’ shopping activity.

MasterCard is looking to layer additional data sets onto its financial archives, providing a broader perspective to merchants, retailers and restauranteurs looking for ways to improve their business.  While Big Data is an exciting development in the business world, its hefty price tag sends many SMBs looking to outsource the task.