Enterprise Big Data market is a heated area and there are many players that have come up in last years to conquer this space. Albeit, a well-crowded space, there are 3 players that are at the forefront and compete head on with each other - MapR, Cloudera and Hortonworks. All three are well funded; in fact MapR got its funding last year from Google capital. Given this, there is still time to find who might win this race. Hortonworks boast of open source capabilities, Cloudera has the first mover advantage. We spoke to Martin Darling, the Vice President (Asia Pacific & Japan) at MapR, about future strategy of MapR.

So, Where’s MapR?

We are in the middle of the biggest change in enterprise computing in decades: a shift in how data is stored, analyzed and processed is changing the way businesses operate and compete in the marketplace. This also potentially creates a new set of technology silos that must be negotiated by IT ops, architects and developers. IT architects are keeping an eye on the horizon for signs of the converged data center. They want a complete three-dimensional view of all of their data that can be served up seamlessly and automatically in the format, speed, and context needed to drive their rapidly evolving applications and analytics portfolio. That converged data center may be a decade away, but data convergence has already begun. According to Martin, “By putting data services (enterprise storage, database, and event streaming) and processing tools (Hadoop, Spark, Drill, NoSQL, and others) on one data platform, we’re enabling organizations to gain immediate access to data across operational analytical workloads. This new type of “converged” platform not only supports the broad range of open source projects that provide a rich diversity of processing options, but also integrates more generally across enterprise apps that require file, table, and/or stream access.”

The Differentiator

So, How does MapR differentiating itself from the rest of the players? MapR provides the industry's only converged data platform that integrates the power of Hadoop and Spark with global event streaming, real-time database capabilities, and enterprise storage, enabling customers to harness the enormous power of their data. The patented MapR Converged Data Platform ensures production success with a unique architecture designed specifically for business-critical applications, seamless big data access and integration, and the ability to run in real time both operational and analytical processing and applications reliably on a single platform.

The India Bet

The good news for the analytics community is that MapR has opened its new R&D Center in Hyderabad as recently as Dec 2015. This new R&D Center is a result of proven demand for MapR products and solutions in India, where companies are investing in Hadoop and big data technologies to increase engagement and customer loyalty. MapR expects 100% growth in employees in a year’s time, with positions in R&D, support, sales, and professional services. We are aware of similar push from the other 2 players in India, but not to the same extent as MapR.   Organizations that can take advantage of data services and processing tools on a single data platform will be able to harness real-time insight from their streaming data, and this translates into real-time views into their customers, products, and operations. MapR seems to be at the forefront and the path ahead is long. What MapR has done is something very interesting – kept itself away from the whole open source futility, added proprietary software and application to speedup the enterprise adoption. But then, it’s a fast-paced space, the rate of change in technology core is faster than the adoption itself and sometimes faster than how most players can have changes incorporated. Its an interesting market to watch out for.