Wrapping up day 1 of SiliconANGLE’s coverage of #BigDataSV, Jeff Kelly joined theCUBE hosts John Furrier and Dave Vellante for a spirited conversation on where the industry is today and where it is headed in the not-too-distant future.

Furrier kicked it off by commenting on how much of the talk on theCUBE today alluded to how Big Data has finally figured prominently in Enterprise conversations around both budget and deliverables. Additionally, Vellanted noted there was increased focus on industry partnerships, distributors and the ecosystem as a whole.

And while 2014 looks to be a great year for Big Data, Kelly, who recently authored the ‘Big Data  Vendor Revenue and Market Forecast 2013-2017’, cautioned that wider broad adoption of Big Data Enterprise options will not likely occur for a couple years more.

Watch the Day 1 Wrap-Up in its entirety here:

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However, the sum total of venture capital still available for startup will aid in furthering innovation in the industry and will help to formulate best practices. Also, fields like text analytics or making Hadoop run more efficiently or provide real-time performance are problems waiting for solutions. Venture capital could prove beneficial in solving those and other issues.

Key players in Big Data’s ecosystem

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Distribution providers are, according to Vellante, jockeying for position before the race. “Distro’s are grabbing their spots and elbows are sharpened.” Kelly added, “This year will be intense.” Kelly followed this statement by citing Silicon Valley gossip regarding the longevity of providers like Cloudera. “They need to hit $100 million revenue mark if they want to go public. The stakes are high. There is a lot of money already invested.”

• Why isn’t Cloudera public yet?

From here, the wrap-up turned to the evolution of the industry to what we know it now to be. Furrier claimed Hadoop’s current position of dominance came to him as no surprise. Hadoop is “…a viable open source platform. The trajectory was relevant. The disruption didn’t surprise me,” he stated. However, Cloudera’s inability to establish themselves more prominently was a surprise to Furrier. “I thought they’d be public by now.”

One reason Cloudera might not have performed to expectations may have much to do with the meteoric rise by Hortonworks which easily rose to the number two position in the industry if it didn’t, in fact, supersede Cloudera altogether. “I said early on there was plenty of beach for everyone,” said Furrier. “I think Horton has a good business model. I’m bullish that Cloudera will have a great market share.”

Another indicator that Big Data has not reached a full maturity is the lack of mergers and acquisition activity in the industry. This, says Kelly, is most likely related to the same hesitancy in the Enterprise. “They are still trying to figure out where to place their bets,” he noted. “Frankly, some of the mega-vendors are still trying to get their thoughts together on how to compete. It’s just been too disruptive to the traditional business model.”

• How did Hortonworks shoot to the top?

One reason Hortonworks might have positioned themselves as the premier distributor has to do with their clearly disruptive model of giving the product away. And while that might make them top dog in the Hadoop distribution market, Kelly commented the potential value exists but, as it stands, Hadoop is still not a huge player. “There are so many other components that go into leveraging data. What we didn’t talk about much today was cloud and the role that is going to play.”

Kelly, who had spent much of the day at #StrataConf, mentioned that as it was just day one, there really wasn’t a lot of action to see. “The exhibition floor wasn’t open yet.” He also commented the data scientists in attendance seemed disappointed that the content in the break-out sessions didn’t go deeper than it did.

Small talk on Big Data security

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Finishing the wrap-up, Vellante noted there had been very little discussion concerning security and data privacy. “I expect that will be more prominent as the week goes on. It was a big topic of discussion last year,” he said.

“Security is critical and is not getting enough thought put to it,” Kelly added. “It is going to be a challenge as we go from early adopter to wider adoption of Hadoop. The ire of the public has been focused on the government. As people realize how much data private is collecting, I think concern will turn to private corporations. They need to get out in front of that,” he concluded.

You can watch live coverage of SiliconANGLE’s #BigDataSV at SiliconANGLE.tv

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