Running Hadoop as a Cloud Service is on the Rise

For a while there, working with Big Data--sorting and sifting large data sets with new tools in pursuit of surfacing meaningful angles on stored information--meant leveraging the open source Hadoop platform in on-premise fashion. Typically, enterprises deployed Hadoop in-house as a platform tool.

However, Hadoop-as-a-service, which basically refers to running Hadoop data crunches in the cloud, is a market projected to grow to $16.1 billion by 2020, according to a report from Allied Market Research. There are also many tools orbiting the Hadoop-as-a-service ecosystem that are worth taking note of.

According to Allied Market Research:

"Hadoop-as-a-Service (HaaS/HDaaS), is a novel term that defines virtual storage and analysis of data on the cloud. Also termed as “hadoop in the cloud,” HaaS has emerged as a replacement to On-premises hadoop. It comprises of data storage in the cloud and its analysis through hadoop without the need to install any infrastructure in the premises. HaaS market has witnessed a tremendous growth in 2013 and has doubled from the market size in 2012. HaaS market is evolving and current users include SaaS providers, social media companies, and gaming companies. The technology is yet to enter into the mainstream commercial market. However, it is expected to witness a tremendous growth in the next 7 years, expanding its horizon into the end user industries of conventional Hadoop."

"Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds lion’s share in the market, holding nearly 90% of the global market. Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR) is the HaaS service by AWS. It provides a Hadoop based platform for data analysis with S3 as the storage system and EC2 as the compute system. Microsoft HDInsight, Cloudera CDH3, IBM Infoshpere BigInsights, EMC GreenPlum HD and Windows Azure HDInsight Service are the primary HaaS services by global IT giants. Altiscale is another player in the market with a comparatively minimal share in the market; however, holds potential to compete with the existing companies. Altiscale and Quobole are the two managed or Pure Play HaaS providers. Contrary to AWS, they provide complete running and management of the Hadoop jobs."

The Altiscale Data Cloud bills itself as a cloud service "purpose-built to run Hadoop," and its services include monitoring and managing Hadoop for enterprises. 

Of course, one thing feeding this trend is already seen with many cloud services: the service presents a pay-as-you-go model for enterprises, which can add up to lots of cost savings. 

You can read more about Hadoop-as-a-service here.  Because of the complexity and costs involved in running Hadoop on-premise, this is likely to be a fast-growing corner of the Big Data market.