BSC Presents Plan to Energize Europe’s Big Data Efforts

Researchers from the Barcelona Supercomputer Center today presented the big data roadmap commissioned by the EU as part of the RETHINK big project intended to identify technology goals, obstacles and actions for developing a more effective big data infrastructure and competitive position for the Europe over the next ten years. Not surprisingly, the leading position of non-European hyperscalers was duly noted as a major roadblock.

Paul Carpenter, senior researcher at BSC and a member of the RETHINK bigteam, presented the projects results at the European Big Data Congress being held at BSC this week. The report, like so many EU technology efforts in recent years, is tightly focused on industry, developing a stronger technology supplier base as well as promoting use of advanced scale technology by commercial end-users. A major objective is to bring together academic expertise with industry to move the needle.

To a significant extent, the key findings are a warning:

• Europe is at a strong disadvantage with respect to hardware / software co-design. The European ecosystem is highly fragmented while media and internet giants such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and Apple and others (also known as hyperscalers) are pursuing verticalization and designing their own infrastructures from the ground up. European companies that are not closely considering hardware and networking technologies as a means to cutting cost and offering better future services run the risk of falling further and further behind. Hyperscalers will continue to take risks and transform themselves because they are the “ecosystem”, moving everybody else in their trail.

To read the rest of the article, see www.hpcwire.com/2016/10/05/bsc-presents-plan-energize-europes-big-data-efforts/