EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

PREVIEW
O CT 20 1 5

2016 Trends in Data Platforms

and Analytics
Matt Aslett, Research Director
Krishna Roy, Senior Analyst
Jim Curtis, Senior Analyst
Jason Stamper, Analyst
The pace of disruption in the data platforms and analytics space may be relatively slow,
as we have noted before, but there is no doubt that the sector is in a state of flux. The
developments expected to make an impact in 2016 all involve gathering momentum
behind technologies and trends that could deliver real lasting change when it comes to
generated business intelligence from data.

2015 451 Research, LLC | W W W . 4 5 1 R E S E A R C H . C O M

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N E W YO R K

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

M AT T A S L E T T
RESARCH DIRECTOR

As Research Director Matt has overall responsibility for the data platforms and
analytics research coverage, which includes operational and analytic databases,
Hadoop, grid/cache, stream processing, search-based data platforms, data
integration, data quality, data management, analytics, and advanced analytics.
Matts own primary area of focus includes data management, reporting and
analytics, and exploring how the various data platforms and analytics technology
sectors are converging in the form of next-generation data platforms.
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Key Findings
451 Research estimates that revenue generated by event/stream processing vendors will grow at a CAGR of
29% from $383m in 2014 to reach $1.37bn in 2019.
Preliminary data indicates that advanced analytics represented 36% of total reporting and analytics revenue in
2014, with predictive analytics/other representing 33% of the total, and machine learning the remaining 3%.

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Executive Summary
INTRODUCTION
Last year we took a somewhat pessimistic view of the pace of disruption in the data platforms and analytics sector. Not
negative, per se, but certainly a glass-half-empty perspective, as illustrated by the subtitle of last years 451 Research Preview,
More of the Same Only Less So. While we still anticipate a very slow rate of disruption in the data platforms and analytics
market, and we believe the market will remain dominated by large incumbent vendors (Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, SAP), we are
taking a more positive perspective this year. Not optimistic, per se, but certainly glass-half-full.
The reason for that is the common thread that ties together the five trends we identify below gathering momentum
behind tools, technologies and approaches that are the result of innovation from startup vendors and incumbents alike
and that will drive lasting change among enterprises that embrace them in order to deliver business intelligence from data.
Those five trends are: the accelerating adoption of stream processing; the maturation of predictive analytics; a new phase of
strategic adoption for self-service data preparation; Hadoop vendors and users getting serious about data governance; and
the continued blurring of the lines between transactional and analytics databases driven by in-memory processing. None
of these trends are brand new, and none of them will truly disrupt the market in 2016, but all of them are indicative of the
very real changes that are happening within enterprises as they look to take advantage of the opportunities for generating
business intelligence.
Take the accelerated adoption of stream processing for example. Event/stream processing has been around for many years,
but is now seeing increasing take-up outside early adopter markets (financial services) as more companies look to increase
their rate of analysis in order to improve the speed at which they can make business decisions and respond to change.
The velocity of data (the rate at which it is produced) has long been accepted as key aspect of big data, and the rise of the
Internet of Things (IoT) is driving more enterprises to consider how they can take advantage of data produced by sensors
and other data-generating machines. However, as we noted as long ago as 2011 with our Total Data report, frequency of
analysis (the rate at which data is queried by the business) is also a key consideration that is driving change not just in terms
of the amount of data that is available for businesses to analyze, but also the way in which they want to analyze it.
Stream processing technologies enable enterprises to act on fast data. Predictive analytics tools and techniques enable the
business to not only react to this data, but proactively anticipate changing circumstances in order to remain competitive.
Again, predictive analytics is in no way new, but it is being more widely adopted, to the extent that many enterprises now
expect to take advantage of predictive analytics in their decision-making process.
There is still some way to go predictive analytics is still the realm of statisticians, mathematicians, data scientists and other
highly technical individuals but we increasingly see enterprises embedding the results of predictive analytics and machine
learning in applications and tools that are used by less skilled, but potentially more business-savvy, decision-makers.
As we note below, ensuring that the right data is used to give these decision-makers true insight is essential, and preprocessing (and ETL tools) is an important aspect of preparing data for advanced analytics. Our third trend concerns a
new phase of strategic adoption for these self-service data preparation tools, which were initially brought to market by
startups such as Paxata, Trifacta and Tamr. The incumbent players including IBM, Informatica and Microsoft now have
self-service data preparation tools of their own, and as self-service data preparation enters the mainstream the interesting
question is how enterprises and vendors will balance traditional IT-oriented data integration and cleansing needs with the
DIY requirements of other classes of users.

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There is some overlap here with our fourth trend vendors and users getting serious about data governance and Hadoop.
The data preparation tools noted above have some governance capabilities that can be brought to bear on data stored in
Hadoop, with the self-service aspect a natural fit with Hadoops schema-on-read approach. The Hadoop vendors themselves
are also getting more serious about data governance as it relates to Hadoop, driven by the need to incorporate more
traditional data management capabilities as Hadoop is increasingly positioned as the basis of a data lake accessed by
different users, applications and groups using different tools for different purposes.
We have been tracking our final trend, the blurring of the lines between transactional and analytic databases, for some
time, but it appears to be accelerating. Relational database products that could be used to support transactional or analytic
workloads have been common for many years, but we are talking here about databases that take advantage of in-memory
performance and processor improvements to support both transactional and analytic workloads at the same time. These
combined operational and analytic processing workloads are significant from our perspective as they may also represent the
use case that triggers wider adoption of NewSQL database products.
This report presents the trends we see shaping data platforms and analytics in the coming year.

451 Researchs 2016 Data Platforms and Analytics Trends

Source: 451 Research, 2015

Winners
Streaming vendors that have a good list of
Stream Processing Adoption Will
Accelerate as Companies Grapple
with Fast Data

reference customers and can describe their

potential role effectively; enterprises that
have begun to investigate the role streaming
technology has to play in their organization

Predictive Analytics Will Continue

To Mature and Become a
Mainstream, Core Offering

Vendors that identify use cases, scenarios,

even verticals in which predictive
analytics can be deployed; those that
put a strong emphasis on usability

Losers
Vendors that have limited alerting and
visualization technologies; enterprises that
see stream processing as a silver bullet to
solve all of their data processing challenges
Vendors that fail to consider the complexities
of predictive analytics; those that fail to spend
to drive market adoption and awareness
Vendors that dont take into consideration

Self-Service Data Preparation Will

Enter a New Phase of Strategic
Adoption

Companies that have already planted a stake

the need to provide at least a basic level

in the self-service data preparation ground

of data access, transformation, profiling

with requisite functionality; vendors that

and cleansing; players that dont recognize

serve up DIY capabilities to help users in

the often separate and distinct needs of IT,

marketing and other line-of-business roles

data scientists/analysts and business users

when it comes to data management

Existing Hadoop distributors; Hadoop-focused

Hadoop Vendors and Users Will
Get Serious About Data Governance

data governance specialists that could become

Enterprises that have rushed into building data

acquisition targets; existing data governance,

lakes; established data warehousing providers

data quality and data management vendors

The Lines Will Continue To Blur

Between Operational and Analytical
Databases

Pure in-memory database vendors

Vendors that make overzealous claims

and the incumbent vendors that have

about the potential to run transactional

added in-memory accelerators to their

and analytical workloads on the

transactional databases; enterprises

same platform; enterprises that fail to

that consider the impact on skills that

consider the implications from a skills

will be required going forward

and organizational perspective

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M E T H O D O LO GY
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Table of Contents
TRENDS1
Trend 1: Stream Processing Adoption Will Accelerate as Companies Grapple with Fast Data

Figure 1: Event/Stream Processing Revenue Is Expected To Grow at a CAGR of 29%2

WINNERS 2
LOSERS 2
Trend 2: Predictive Analytics Will Continue To Mature and Become a Mainstream, Core Offering

Figure 2: Predictive Analytics Represents the Bulk of the Advanced Analytics Market 4
RECOMMENDATIONS 4
WINNERS 4
LOSERS 4
Trend 3: Self-Service Data Preparation Will Enter a New Phase of Strategic Adoption

RECOMMENDATIONS 5
WINNERS 5
LOSERS 5
Trend 4: Hadoop Vendors and Users Will Get Serious About Data Governance

RECOMMENDATIONS 7
WINNERS 7
LOSERS 7
Trend 5: The Lines Will Continue To Blur Between Operational and Analytical Databases

RECOMMENDATIONS 8
WINNERS 9
LOSERS 9

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THE LONG VIEW

10

FURTHER READING

11

INDEX OF COMPANIES

12

FURTHER READING

12

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