Big Data

For Small and Medium enterprises (SMB) cloud is emerging as the best place to keep and derive insights out of their big data as it is not only cost effective but also easy to maintain.  Many of the administrative functions are taken over by managed cloud service providers and your team can focus on the core business. This ease in Analytical processing is attracting more and more businesses to the cloud. Big data usually consists of large sets of structured, unstructured and semi structured data. Apart from the ability to elastically scale the storage and compute, there are some other aspects which a business should consider before migrating their big data to the cloud. In this article we will discuss the various aspects a business should consider before selecting their big data cloud services provider.

Clearly defining your big data processing needs – The first decision a business should make is whether you need provider managed or self-managed big data cloud services. Your business case might also fall in middle where a combination of the two can work best. For the enterprises who already have big data expertise on board and have implementation experience in big data modelling and analysis the deciding factor is cost and performance-oriented scaling of storage and compute. For smaller business or for business with no prior big data experience the service providers managed big data cloud solutions works best as they not only save many administrative costs but can also provide additional consulting, data management and development services on as needed basis.

Mapping your existing infrastructure to a suitable big data cloud service providers solutions – Like all technical solutions big data also works on various underlying technologies. If you are already using one in your existing in-house setup, you need to make sure the big data cloud solutions provider you choose also supports it. As there are many security and governance guidelines which an organization has to follow, the cloud solution providers environment you chose should also be able to adhere to them.

Evaluate the management tools and documentational resources the cloud service provider offers – Even if you choose a provider managed service there will be many tools your in-house staff will need to learn to work in cloud. You should evaluate the ease of learning them and the cost of any additional consulting / training services if you need to utilize them for a smooth operation.

Network is the lifeline – As big data on cloud may mean a lot of data might need to travel between your in-house data-center and cloud the cost of reliable communication between two is also a major deciding factor. You can check if the provider has a geographic location near to your data center. The lesser physical distance will not only improve the performance and stability of service but also reduce costs for your business.

Flexibility the cloud services provider gives you on uncertain cost negotiations – Without a reliable history the task of determining the cost of storing and processing big data on cloud is herculean in nature. One may not have the correct estimates of storage or compute and may reserve more or less than needed. Flexible conditions for these kinds of negotiations can help a business to achieve its budget targets or at least stay near to those.

Some of the prominent players in the big data cloud service providers market are amazon(aws), Microsoft(azure), Google cloud, IBM datalake, Oracle big data service etc. Once you analyse your business case with all above parameters, you can choose the provider which goes best with your IT direction.