• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 9, 2014

1010data, Inc. announced the results of its 2013 Big Data in Business Study to put in context the strides Big Data has made in 2013. U.S. business and technology executives were interviewed across industry sectors, highlighting success with Big Data, and factors keeping business from capitalizing with it.

79% of executives believe Big Data will reach its potential in the next one to five years. Finance, retail, consumer packaged goods and manufacturing, were viewed as the industries that would see the most success with Big Data in 2014. 

Anticipated “Reach of Potential” for Big Data (% of Respondents)
Time	% of Respondents
Next five years	44%
End of 2014	35
Already has	12
Next 10 years	6
More than 20 years	2
Next 20 years	1
Source:1010data, December 2013

While businesses are optimistic about the prospect of leveraging Big Data, they also admit that there are good reasons why companies are holding out on using the large and complex data sets for business projects. The most popular reason with 62% of executives was that companies require more education on how Big Data solves business problems .

Reasons companies are holding out on using Big Data:

• Need more education on how Big Data solves business problems (62%)
• Need Big Data solutions to better address the needs of business users (53%)
• Need better time to value for Big Data (47%)
• Need simplified solutions for Big Data with fewer moving parts (49%)
• Need prices for Big Data solutions to come down (40%)

In addition, survey respondents commented on the characteristics of Hadoop 2.0 as it applies to their experience and current business practices.

(Apache) Hadoop is an open-source software framework for storage and large scale processing of data-sets on clusters of commodity hardware, being built and used by a global community of contributors and users. (Wickipedia)

When it comes to evaluating Hadoop, executives admitted they had concerns about its’ complexity when solving business projects’ and are worried that the recently launched software does not adequately address the underlying problems with the technology, says the report. The executives also believe that alternatives may be better for solving business problems.

Concerns With Using Hadoop 2.0 for Business Projects (% of Respondents)
Concern	% of Respondents
Too much coding required	35%
Hard to mashup data	31%
Still don’t have enough data scientists to analyze	20%
Lack of BigData tools	34%
Slow query speeds	30%
Expense of implementation and maintenance	42%
Security and reliability	45%
Source:1010data, December 2013

When probed further, executives felt that Hadoop projects were more complex than other IT projects, with 43% saying that it’s hard to find talent experienced with the programs, and 41% saying Hadoop is very new and not as stable as other technologies.

Alternatives To Apache Hadoop 2.0 Are Better For Business Use, Says Executive Survey
Top Reasons Cited For Alternatives	% of Respondents
Simplified data integration	42%
More affordability	35%
Faster query speeds	34%
Generate faster time to results & value	34%
Better tailored for business needs	33%
More advanced analytics	26%
Greater scalability	21%
Give the ability to do data mash ups	18%
No coding is required	15%
Source:1010data, December 2013

Sandy Steier, co-founder and CEO of 1010data, concludes that “… the research shows that the business community has high expectations for Big Data, with most believing that it will reach its potential in the next five years. However, there is also significant concern with many existing approaches to dealing with Big Data… “

For additional information, and to download the full report, please visit here.