How to Hadoop? Hadoop is at the center of the data economy. Big Data + the Industrialization of the Internet means we require more and more data for more and more things.  As far as the enterprise is concerned, Big Data has introduced a big challenge and a bigger opportunity – how to commercialize analytics in a software-led world?

On Thursday, October 10th, 2013 industry thought leaders from Hortonworks, Wandisco, Talend, MapR, MongoDB, Avoa, Wikibon and Big Data Open Source Security LLC, and many other thought leaders gathered for a public on the record CrowdChat to discuss which model is superior for Hadoop, Open Core or Open Source.

Note: Cloudera did not show up for the CrowdChat and declined to participate.

Top Thread and CrowdCaptain leader – Ercan Yilmaz

Ercan Yilmaz earned the crowd captain title, with 9 votes, by asking the crowd “what is the definition of commercial success? 10x exit or building the next Oracle, Microsoft.” In response to this Jim Walker, Hortonwork’s Director of Product Marketing, said “success is really defined as making the market function with Hadoop as a core component, embraced by the broader ecosystem . . . not commercial terms so much.”

Walker also provided a question to the CrowdChat, asking the crowd “is Hadoop fundamentally different than past OSS markets? How much does history apply?” Joining in on the conversation Jack Norris, CMO at MapR Technologies, said “I think the difference largely depends on the timeframe. Unix operating systems had been around 30 years and were well understood when Linux was created. Customers today benefit from innovation plus open source.

A number of analysts from Wikibon were engaged in the CrowdChat, including Jeff Kelly. “Specfic to Hadoop, which model – pure open source or open core + proprietary overlay – innovates faster,” asked Kelly. In this discussion Tim Crawford, CIO Strategic Advisor at Avoa, and Matt Aday, VP of Business Development & Corporate Strategy at MongoDB, led the charge with their feedback.

“Today, Hadoop is not enough of a business model to sustain itseld. Needs ecosystem + commercial,” said Crawford. Asay added, “in open source it is the proprietary companies that tend to contribute much more open source than pure-play open source companies because they can afford to do so, look at Facebook or IBM.”

As the race to commoditize analytics as a service pushes on, the major obstacle of deliverable solutions becomes unavoidable.  Given Hadoop’s promising capabilities in data management, it’s being supported by a flourishing open source community as well as a growing number of organizations looking to monetize their service-based products atop its technology.  So what’s the better model for commercial Hadoop: Open Core or Open Source?

Ahead of our #BigDataNYC event during Big Data Week in New York, SiliconANGLE teamed up with research firm Wikibon, gathering together a panel of experts for the #bigdataNYC CrowdChat to discuss this very question.

Our #bigdataNYC CrowdChat also discussed what defines commercial success, the Open Core + Proprietary Overlay model vs. the Pure Open Source + Services model, whether open source is a business model or a weapon against traditional approaches, and which model innovates faster specific to the emerging Hadoop market

What’s the winning Hadoop Model?

Hadoop needs an active ecosystem and commercial usage to thrive. The question is what model enables Hadoop to mature faster, adding both new ways to interact with data and enterprise-grade security and management features? Some in the chat argues pure open source, with services on top is the way to add value. As Furrier points out, going proprietary off of open source is risky.  However that created the debate is about relevance and viability where innovation is the discussion not commodization.  Jack Norris of MapR weighed where he pointed out that “business models that are “Built to Last” provided a perspective on driving innovation to spur customer success.”

Having several vendors with different go-to-market strategies allows the open market to be differentiated and competition to spur growth. Pure open source, with services on top is the way to add value. As Furrier points out, going proprietary off of open source is risky.

From the Crowdchat here are some comments:

Jack Norris added: It wasn’t that long ago that articles were written about Cloudera being the open source champion and that models like MapR’s were proprietary. The Elephant in the room is the acknowledgement that our model is right.

Yves de Montcheuil: I seem to recall that at first Cloudera was also playing the purity card. Until they came up with Cloudera Manager.

Takeaway

The takeaway from our #bigdataNYC CrowdChat is that open source is the better model for commercial Hadoop. As discussed by the thought-leaders involved, platform or data lock-in rarely works. What vendors can do, is create reasons for their customers to choose their open source platform above others, by delivering unique advantages to its product.

Being relevant and having customer success is the new definition of “cool”.  Having great technology that no one uses is “not cool”.

See our full collection of #BigDataNYC 2013 stories on Springpad.