The core problems enterprises try to solve should be the foundation of a Big Data project, says Joel Horowitz, Director of Portfolio Marketing, Big Data Analytics, IBM. In his joint interview with Nancy Hensley, Director of Marketing, Analytics Platform, IBM, at IBM InterConnect, Horowitz told theCUBE host Dave Vellante that “it all starts with what the client is trying to accomplish.” First, companies determine the business situation and what problems the client is trying to address, then define the available data sets, and then bring in IBM’s technology and experience behind a package to provide a solution. “Where IBM has succeeded in the last few years with Big Data” is starting with the business level and working backwards, he explained.

Hadoop has “become an acceptable complement to most enterprises” in the past year, Nancy Hensley said. “It allows you to do analytics that you could never do before.” IBM has built its business around data, she added. “Who knows data better than IBM? We are just mobilizing in different ways” right now.

Commenting on the recent critical opinions of the Open Data Platform, Horowitz said that open source and ODP are “two very different things. Open Source and the Apache software foundation are a way for developers and innovators to come together and work. We obviously support that. But for our clients in their industry to really adopt Hadoop, you really do need standards around that to make our clients’ life easier. ODP in my mind is really a separate conversation than open source development. It’s about standards for an industry” and it is customer inclusive.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM InterConnect.