What is Big Data?

Big data is a broad term for both structured and unstructured data sets so large and complex that traditional data processing applications and systems cannot adequately handle them. Big data often powers predictive analytics. Analysis of data sets is used to find new correlations to identify business trends, prevent diseases, combat crime, and more.
Global Industry Research Reveals 4 Key Hybrid Cloud Trends

Empowering Big Data

VMware and Cloudera: Working together to virtualize Hadoop.

WATCH THE VIDEO

Busting the Myths about Hadoop Virtualization

Learn the facts about virtualizing Hadoop on vSphere.

READ NOW

Roadblocks to Successful Big Data Projects

Companies often encounter roadblocks when implementing big data projects. These can include budget constraints, lack of IT expertise and risk of platform lock-in.

Budget Constraints

Budget constraints and cost are the top reasons why many companies are shying away from deploying big data, according to a study performed by Deloitte. It can be hard to justify investing in new IT infrastructure to process large amounts of data, especially if the business does not yet havean immediate business case.

IT Expertise

Processing big data workloads is different than processing typical enterprise application workloads. Big data workloads are processed in parallel, instead of sequentially. IT typically prioritizes business critical workloads and schedules lower priority jobs in batches at night or when there is excess capacity. With big data analytics, many use cases must be run in real-time for live analysis and reaction. This forces IT to change data center policies and learn new tools to create, manage and monitor these new workloads.

Platform Lock-In

Companies need to choose the right type of infrastructure to run their applications and data. Procuring hardware takes time. Going into the cloud may be great for a proof of concept, but it carries the risk of platform lock-in, comes with security concerns and incurs tremendous cost at scale. Companies must also decide which Hadoop distribution to select, with Cloudera, Hortonworks, MAPR, and Pivotal all offering competing (and incompatible) architectures. There are many decisions that, once made, make it difficult for a company to pivot later so many companies just delay having the big data conversation.

Benefits of VMware Big Data

Simple

Simplify operations and maintenance of your big data infrastructure.

Agile

Get your infrastructure on demand so you can rapidly deliver business value.

Cost-Effective

Decrease CapEx cost through cluster consolidation. Decrease OpEx through automation and simple workflows.

Flexible

Try early and often with major big data technologies. Multi-tenancy allows you to run multiple Hadoop distributions on the same virtual machine.

Efficient

Pool your resources and increase server utilization. Automation of workload mobility adds to process efficiencies.

Secure

Ensure control and compliance of your sensitive data.

Spotlight on Hadoop

The role of infrastructure, whether it’s physical or virtual, is to support applications. This includes traditional business critical applications as well as modern cloud, mobile and big data applications. Industry analyst, Doug Laney, defined Big Data in terms of the three Vs:

 

  • Volume: Terabytes, records, transactions, tables and files
  • Velocity: Batch, near time, real time and streams
  • Variety: Structured, unstructured and semi structured

Apache Hadoop (aka Hadoop) is open source software used for distributed storage and processing of big data. Hadoop has been packaged and integrated into large distributions (aka distros) by companies such as Cloudera, Hortonworks, MAPR and Pivotal to run big data workloads. Virtualizing big data applications like Hadoop offers a lot of benefits that cannot be obtained on physical infrastructure or in the cloud. Simplifying the management of your big data infrastructure gets faster time to results, making it more cost-effective. VMware is the best platform for big data just as it is for traditional applications.

Ready to Get Started?

CONTACT US