HP Leverages Acquisitions, Firms Up Big Data Approach

Today HP announced that it would be reaching further into the big data space with new extensions to its Instant-On Enterprise approach.

The addition of a next generation data management platform, appliances that make good on the Autonomy buy, beefed up storage, a performance suite, and a “social intelligence” solution are all features that HP says can solve the problem of actually making use of massive amounts of data.

The company claims that at this point, only 15 percent of the data in enterprise stores is in structured formats. Furthermore, while the vast majority of this unstructured data (85 percent) is what HP calls “human information” (video, semantic, social media, etc.), there is a growing amount of sensor and machine data—material that HP is calling “extreme information”.

The problem with these numbers is that their research also suggests that over half of the data companies have, no matter what format it is in, remains unconnected and often unused. Their study found that for those who were unable to make full use of the data they had available, the problem was rooted in an “effective information strategy that cuts across organizational silos, technologies and strategic functions.”

Armed with figures supporting some serious confusions about approaching big data problems, HP lined up a jam-packed set of new features that were rolled out today that tackle key areas, including storage, analytics and management.

At the heart of the announcement is HP’s Next Generation Information Platform (IDOL 10) will, according to HP, “enable organizations to automatically understand and act on a combination of human and extreme information by identifying ideas and patterns in place and real time.”

Part of the power behind IDOL 10 comes from the technology behind Autonomy and Vertica, companies that HP bought to boost its big data analysis portfolio on the data processing and analytics sides.

The Autonomy Appliances are intended to help companies with archiving, discovery and enterprise search, which powers much of the action behind the IDOL 10 curtain. As another addition that makes use of their acquisitions, HP also announced that it would be offering Advanced Information Services for Vertica to help customers understand and design their analysis environments and integrate them fully.

The company’s converged storage rounds out their big data approach. As HP noted today, the new addition, the HP B6200 StoreOnce Backup System provides large-scale deduplication at 28 TB per hour. HP made a string of other smaller updates to the software and converged storage appliance, which can be found here.

While they were painting a bleak picture of the readiness of enterprises to make full use of their data, they also noted that only 2 percent of the execs they surveyed said they were able to call up the right data just when needed 100 percent of the time.

While the 100 percent of the time might have added a kicker and made some respondents leery of answering positively, HP nonetheless is seeing this as a remarkable opportunity to bring businesses into the fold and help them make use of all of their data, in part through assisting them with the information management strategy side.