Dozens of Big Data movers and shakers stopped by theCube at the recently concluded HP Vertica Big Data Conference to share their insights into the hottest trend in IT. Among the guests was Yammer analytics director Pete Fishman, who discussed how his team uses Vertica software to accommodate the company’s rapidly growing database.

According to Fishman, data analytics has to be as cost-effective as possible in order to drive business value. Simplicity is key to delivering insights cheaply, he elaborated, which is why Yammer developed a set of tools that enables business users to extract value from social data without consulting a statistician.

“A lot of our philosophy is around cheapness, we want to deliver insights cheaply. We don’t go too deep into a lot of our models, our visualizations, this is what gets you the answer in a sort of simplistic fashion,” Fishman said. He called on developers to “figure out what your customers are actually doing; don’t fantasize about it. Figure out how they are using your product, what features are working or not within your product.”

From a development standpoint, accessible insights translate into shorter release cycles and better software. Colin Mahony, the vice president of general manager of HP Vertica, told us that interactive analytics and data hooks empower software engineers to address user needs more effectively and “come out constantly with new releases.”

Hewlett Packard is doubling down on data-driven development. George Kadifa, the executive vice president of the company’s software group, boasted that HAVEn features over 700 connectors to make it simpler for partners to base their solutions on the platform. He revealed that HP is looking to build an ecosystem around HAVEn to make its Big Data lineup more appealing for corporate developers.