Source: EMC

Back in January, I wrote a blog post on how we, as an industry will need to combat the Big Data skills shortage. One of the ways I suggested was to bring traditional capabilities, methods and approaches to Big Data (namely Hadoop).

On February 25, 2013, Greenplum (a division of EMC) launched PivotalHD. PivotalHD brings standard SQL to Hadoop. This means that databsae administrators (DBAs) who have spent a career building up their database skills on relational databases, such as Oracle, IBM DB/2, and Sybase can take those skills and apply them to the Hadoop world.

This is a major leap in the acceptance of Hadoop in the enterprise. Hadoop engineers and contributors can work as hard as they want to harden Hadoop for the enterprise, but without the necessary skill set to put it into production, the efforts would be for naught.

What this means is that one of the major hurdles for enterprise adoption of Big Data (and in this context, Hadoop) has been taken away. The marriage of SQL and Hadoop can be viewed much like the royal marriages that took place for dynasties and bloodlines to continue.

I heard a beautiful phrase from the TV series In Plain Sight recently, “two nerds don’t make a right”. SQL “nerds” are about querying relational databases. Hadoop “nerds” about breaking down the prescriptive relational nature of data management. Bringing these “two nerds” together is an oxymoron. But combined, it actually provides enterprises with the necessary runway to evolve themselves into a much more dynamic and competitive organizations; better able to relate to its customers and create value through innovation.

Much of the revenue opportunities available for Big Data vendors is in helping traditional enterprises evolve to the next generation software defined data management data center. Bringing SQL and Hadoop together allows enterprises to do just that; and it is very likely that this will lower the barrier to entry for Big Data. Neuralytix wrote a Communiqué on this very topic. Clickhere to view it.