Dan Berthiaume
It is still early enough in the year for prognosticators to forecast what will happen in the world of IT this year. One set of predictions that will make most CIOs happy is a list of five trends in 
Big Data analytics that analytic data solutions vendor Teradata says will bring significant innovation in 2013. Excited? You should be, so without further ado let’s take a gander at each predicted trend.
Big Data Discovery Platform Brings Experiments to Life
Teradata predicts that during 2013, the discovery platform, or a workbench that allows scaled Big Data experiments at a much lower cost than traditional up-front data sampling and modeling, will become an “indispensable part” of Big Data strategy. The discovery platform allows hypotheses to be quickly tested and failed assumptions to become evident in a short period of time. To work properly it must support SQL, BI tools, statistics and next-generation MapReduce analytics from a single platform.
Big Data Applications Grow in a Big Way
Starting this year and continuing through 2016, Teradata foresees “explosive” growth in Big Data applications, driven by advancing Big Data insights across industries. CIOs will face a challenge as well an opportunity, since Big Data applications require specialized skills and knowledge to develop.
Unified Architecture Delivers Big Data Promise
While some organizations will continue to deploy Big Data point solutions in an IT environment that lacks data, metadata, security and administration, this implementation strategy fails to deliver the full potential of Big Data technology. However, more users will start to deploy their Big Data solutions with a unified architecture that supports enterprise standards and leverages existing investments in analytical tools. Benefits include faster and more powerful analytics and lower deployment and operational costs.
Don’t Count Out SQL Yet
To be competitive, organizations need the capability of both Big Data and traditional SQL analytics that run within a relational database management system. As a result, Teradata says Big Data analytics “will not come close to replacing traditional analytics in 2013.” Savvy users will blend the analytical capabilities of both types of analytical tools, producing a competitive advantage.
Storage (Hardware) Wars
CIOs will move beyond focusing on hardware for storage of massive amounts of diverse big data to developing an analytic process that is repeatable and provides business value. Then, CIOs will be able to transition away from buying point solutions to deploying big data platforms.
All of these predicted trends are already happening in the market to some extent and all should see growth during 2013. Whether any or all of these trends will become as popular or produce as much value as Teradata is predicting is anyone’s guess, but at a minimum they provide a basic roadmap showing the direction Big Data is traveling.
The underlying trend here is for Big Data users to transition away from point solutions and toward a unified architecture that connects Big Data analytics to the rest of the enterprise, including other established analytical solutions. New technology becomes assimilated into the enterprise – there’s a trend we have all seen many times before, and usually it’s a good thing.
