IBM Working with Apache Hadoop to Tackle Big Data

Yesterday, IBM issued a press release that Unveils Software and Services to Help Organizations Make Sense of Their Deluge of Data. There is a lot of information in the press release. Basically, IBM is announcing IBM InfoSphere BigInsights, which is based on Apache Hadoop. So, in other words, IBM is announcing an offering that allows you to work with pedabytes of data. At present, IBM InfoSphere BigInsights consists of:

• BigInsights Core, which is software and services for implementing Apache Hadoop
• BigSheets, which acts as an insight engine for information in Hadoop. It’s a Web-based spreadsheet-like infrastructure for Big Data that includes a plug-in framework for analysis and presentation extensions. You can use BigSheets for extracting information, adding annotations, visualizing with pie charts, visualizing with tag clouds, and so on.
• Industry-specific solutions for finance, risk management, and media.

You might be wondering what IBM is bringing to the table here, aside from experience with deploying Hadoop-based solutions. Well, IBM sees its role as making Hadoop enterprise-ready. This includes the kinds of things that IBM is good at, like creating software with robust quality, accessibility, and localization. But it also includes adding key features that allow you to fully leverage the information in a Hadoop environment.

IBM is working to provide integration with DBMS, ETL, and MDM systems. Remember, ideally you want such environments to work with both existing and new data repositories. After all, you don’t want to create yet another silo of information within your organization. It is only by working with all information at your fingertips that organizations can see the full picture, and make good business decisions. Which leads me nicely to the other big thing that IBM brings to the table–the ability to add business value to the Hadoop deployment with Cognos, SPSS, and ECM application layers.

You can see more coverage on this topic, including Cloudera’s reaction at IBM punts commercial Hadoop distro.