Big data market booming in India and worldwide

BANGALORE, INDIA: Sharing his vast domain experience in Big Data and analytics, Jeby Cherian, VP and MD, Global Business Services, IBM India & South Asia shared his opinion with Abhigna N G from CIOL on the market size of Big Data and How Indian enterprises are adopting to big data and analytics solutions. Excerpts:

CIOL: In this digital era, does your solution help customers who are more focused on mobile and social networks? If yes how?

Jeby Cherian: Our view is that there's a very strong and consequential change taking place as a result of the huge surge in the use of social networks and mobile devices. This is not only changing how companies and their customers interact, it is thoroughly changing what customers value and expect from companies.

One example is this notion of immediacy. People are turning to their smartphones, tablets, and online communities for instant satisfaction-finding discounts and recommendations, based on their current location-all available to them at the instant they decide to buy.

The good news is forward thinking leaders across the globe, including India, are realizing that they need to continuously transform the customer experience to be relevant and competitive- from the perception of innovation and value, to the quality of the interaction, to the economics of delivery.

The proliferation of mobile and smart devices and rapid growth of social networks give customers unprecedented access to information about the products and services they buy, and great flexibility in the way they interact with each other.

CIOL: According to you, what will be the market size of big data in next two years and at what will be the growth rate?

JC: Big data market is booming both in India and worldwide. Research firm IDC is predicting a big data market that will grow revenue at 31.7 percent a year until it hits the $23.8 billion mark in 2016.

According to Gartner, Big Data demand will reach 4.4 million jobs globally by 2015, but only one-third of those jobs will be filled. To help prepare the future generation around Big Data, IBM is partnering with 200 global academic organizations to bring advanced analytics training directly into the classroom and has created a website for students to learn Big Data analytics skills.

Big Data has the power today to do for business and society what electricity and steam did in the Industrial Age. As organizations embrace the ability of this powerful new natural resource to unleash not just knowledge and insight but new ways of creating value, IBM is marshaling its innovations, deep vertical expertise, global reach and the world's most extensive portfolio of big data technologies and solutions to help organizations fundamentally transform their decision making and anticipation of their customers' needs.

 

CIOL: How do you see Indian enterprises adopting Big Data and Analytics solutions?

JC: Indian big data market is growing at a considerable pace and is yet to achieve its due. India is seeing a massive data influx but companies are still grappling with it as they do not have clear insights on how to tackle the data deluge.

According to a recent report by IDC, Big data market is expected to grow more than two-fold to $153.1 million (around Rs 840 crore) by 2014, which depicts that the Indian market has growth-potential. Indian organizations ranging from BFSI to telcos, healthcare, government, media and entertainment and retail are using IBM's big data platform.

Plenty of customers are seeing tangible ROI using IBM solutions to address their big data challenges. IBM understands the business challenges and dynamics of these verticals and helps them more effectively understand trends from real-time data feeds from various network devices, web analytics, social media feeds, text messages and other forms of unstructured data and make the most of all the information they have.

Big Data as the planet's new natural resource and we believe that Big Data will revolutionize industries and societies. Data and information are the latest frontier for competitive differentiation. For the foreseeable future, businesses will compete based on how they leverage and act on data, information and insights. Big Data is more than simply a matter of size; it is an opportunity to find insights in new and emerging types of data and content, to make businesses more agile and competitive.