IBM will make its Hadoop-based InfoSphere BigInsights platform available via the cloud so enterprises can perform Big Data Analytics without needing to install and service Hadoop clusters on premise, according to the company.

The news was announced this morning to coincide with the kick-off of IBM’s annual Information on Demand conference in Las Vegas. IBM will offer both a free, cloud-based “basic” edition and a paid enterprise edition. The enterprise edition can be up-and-running in as little as 30 minutes, according to IBM, with pricing starting at $.60 per cluster, per hour.

Earlier this month, IBM rival Oracle made its Exadata and Exalytics platforms available via Oracle’s new public cloud offering.

BigInsights Enterprise Edition includes the Apache Hadoop distribution bundled with data connectors to IBM’s Netezza and DB2 databases, JDBC connectors and includes IBM BigSheets, the vendor’s Big Data front-end analytics tool. IBM has also partnered with a number of business analytics vendors, most recently Jaspersoft and Karmasphere, to extend its Big Data capabilities.

This morning IBM also released an iPad-optimized version of its Cognos business intelligence software; added new geographic mapping features for performing predictive analytics to SPSS Statistics 20.0; released IBM InfoSphere Information Server 8.7 with improved Big Data integration capabilities; and unveiled IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management 10, which includes better integration between Big Data and business process management software as well as a shared matching engine.

ServicesAngle

IBM BigInsights via the company’s SmartCloud gives enterprises an easy way to begin experimenting with Hadoop and Big Data Analytics without a large, upfront investment in associated hardware. It also removes the need for enterprises to staff their own internal teams to deploy, tune and manage Hadoop clusters.  IBM is well positioned to offer Big-Data-as-a-Service thanks to its experience with enterprise-level cloud computing and it’s many investments in business analytics technology and services.