Informatica unlocks big data

Big data is one of the hottest topics of discussion and interest in the IT industry at present. What is it, though? Many in the industry probably do not know.

Big data, in a nutshell, is the information companies gather about their clients. What they then do with this mass of data once they have gathered it, and how they access and utilise it, is of particular interest. The Informatica Data Centric Enterprise Summit, on 20 September, tried to unlock some answers to these questions.

Informatica's focus is the maximisation of a return from data. The data integration company assists its customers in getting their data together, getting access to it, and reducing the cost of that data. A return on data is generated by dividing the value of the data by the cost of the data.

This was highlighted by Ashutosh Kulkarni, senior VP and GM of product management at Informatica. Kulkarni referred to research by Gartner, which showed that 85% of Fortune 500 companies do not know how to handle big data. As data increases in value and importance to companies, the handling of this data will become key. Data services will, therefore, become an operational requirement for most, if not all companies, and going forward, this presents the data sector as a whole with a massive opportunity.

A point of great interest is the relationship between data and cloud computing. Informatica is a hybrid enterprise, Kulkarni pointed out, with data stored both in the cloud and on-premise. Data is increasingly fragmented into the cloud, and Kulkarni predicts that, in a decade, more than half of all data will be stored in the cloud. Informatica does not host data, but rather facilitates the transport of data to the cloud, Kulkarni said.

With the shifting of data to the cloud, it will instantly become more accessible, and with increased accessibility, the price of data will be driven down. The cloud and its relationship with data is a very exciting proposition for the industry as a whole. It has the potential to completely revolutionise the data industry, as what was previously not even considered possible is now a real possibility.

Kulkarni also highlighted the increasingly significant role mobile plays in the data industry, and believes that role will become more important in time. He used an example of an airline that had been grounded and the resulting flood of data the event generated through social media, with most people accessing social media and generating content through mobile devices. Such data is extremely important and relevant to companies and needs to be accessed, analysed and integrated, he says.

The pay-off for companies is not always in the bottom line, Kulkarni says, but in increased efficiency and decision-making.

In SA, Informatica has seen demand mostly for master data management services, according to Tim Stanley, the company's territory manager for sub-Saharan Africa. Some of the company's clients required assistance with the entire process of data integration, from the bottom up, Stanley said. This included assistance in setting up systems to integrate data and, further along in the process, the integration of data and data quality.

Moving to the rest of the continent, demand has been predominantly for business intelligence (BI) services, with Stanley adding that Kenya and Nigeria have been the primary growth markets in Africa. Informatica's services are employed in the financial and telecommunications sectors and in the public sector in Kenya, with Nigeria showing a similar trend.

"The growth in demand for data is similar to the boom," said Stanley. Business grew during the 2009 recession, with many companies enlisting services during this time to assist in making their businesses run more efficiently. Once the growth boom was over, the focus would shift to the management of customers. Stanley said there was no resistance to change from companies regarding data integration. "The value of data is being recognised, and increasingly so if companies are struggling."

"We anticipate significant growth of our business in Africa in 10 years' time," said Stanley. "We are expanding our partner base in Africa, as partners are key to the implementation of our products. Growing partners are vital to our expansion and success."

"Informatica is barely scratching the surface of all the data problems encountered by companies requesting our services," Kulkarni said. "Data will completely change the landscape of the IT industry in the next decade. A data integration platform is a core part of every business structure. The relationship between data, mobile and social media will grow even stronger."