Editor’s Note: The ecosystem of big data and analytics, and its intersection with mobile networks and cloud computing has increasing relevance to wireless in areas that include service assurance, customer experience management, mobile marketing, location-based services and more. Here is a look at the week’s big data news.
—Cloudera and Red Hat are partnering on big data software offering for the enterprise, both cloud-based and on-premise.
Cloudera’s open source platform revolves around Apache Hadoop, and Red Hat focuses on open source software; Hadoop will be at the core of the combined offerings. The two companies said they will work on joint offerings with “cooperative documentation, marketing and support” that include cloud-ready data platforms, with Red Hat’s Linux OpenStack Platform for enterprise and its cloud-based management; data integration and app development tools; and scalable data platforms for enterprise that combine elements of Red Hat’s Linux and storage server offerings with Cloudera’s enterprise and management features.
–Mobile marketing company Vserv, which works with operators including Vodafone, Airtel and Aircel in emerging markets, is repositioning itself as a “smart data” company versus a mobile ad exchange, illustrating the increasing importance of big data in mobile marketing.
Vserv, which focuses on creating specialized user profiles that integrate data from telcos, apps and offline partners, said it has data on more than 50% of mobile Internet users across emerging markets and aims to have 1.2 billion unique user profiles by 2016. The company combines the user profile information with “real-time intent signals” to display relevant ads to users. Vserv said that a recent test campaign for a mobile top-up company showed a 5x increase in conversion rates.
—C Spire has won an award for mobile marketing analytics from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), beating out Citrix and Intel on the strength of its marketing analytics, which it said boosted customer retention campaigns by 50%. The national award for marketing analytics leadership was established last year by the ANA to highlight companies that are leaders in relying on scientific analytics for marketing results and growth. C Spire plans to donate the $50,000 cash prize to two charities.
–Language analysis start-up Ibidon raised $5.5 million in first-round funding from investors including Samsung. Ibidon launched in January of this year and focuses on analytics for unstructured data, combining machine learning and natural language for sifting through text in more than 50 languages to determine future intent, product insights and tracking of key influencers. The investment round was led by Altpoint Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Morningside Ventures.
–The social media analytics market is expected to boom from $620.3 million this year to $2.73 billion in 2019, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of more than 30% during those years, according to a new report. Major plays in the social analytics market include IBM, SAP, SAS, HP Autonomy and Simply Measured.
–Software and IT company Luxoft has acquired Radius, which specializes in Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and analytics across the areas of mobile, cloud, data and application programming interfaces (APIs). The company products include IoT data simulation for testing purposes prior to launching enterprise data solutions, as well as cellular-connected IoT sensors.
“It is quite startling to think about the wealth of valuable information that is still held captive within connected appliances, wearables, industrial sensors and other smart devices,” said Michael Minkevich, VP of technology services for Luxoft and the head of its Menlo Park office. “We believe that effective application of IoT analytics to operational, industrial and even financial data has the potential to make a vital difference in improving efficiency and effectiveness with which enterprises run today.”
