5 Disruptive Trends That Will Shape Big Data, Hadoop, and Cloud Storage in 2016

Big data hasn’t just changed the way things are marketed and developed; it has also had a tremendous impact on the software market (how can we manage and analyze this tremendous amount of data?) and on the arena of data storage (where on earth will we store these massive quantities of data affordably?) What does the next year hold for big data, cloud storage, and analytics tools like Hadoop?

1. Container Technologies Continue to Evolve

As the sands of time march on, look for Docker to reach the high tide mark, while outdated technologies like Java are ready to be bid a heartfelt bon voyage.

Docker has been the new kid on the block, but like any newcomer, it had to prove itself against the other neighborhood bullies to prove it had a place in the ballgame. Docker has done that. As more developers take containers seriously, look for improvements in Docker governance and security, and more talk about container monitoring and management solutions.

2. The IoT Takes Hold in Both the Consumer & Industrial Markets

The IoT is an all-encompassing term that means ‘connected devices’, and it refers to everything from smartphones and smartwatches to industrial machine monitors, security cameras, connected vehicles (drones and cars), connected health and fitness devices, and much, much more. While drones, ‘unmanned’ cars, and other such devices were a bit scary a few years ago, connected devices that monitor and communicate with people are hardly even novel anymore. Look for more organizations and industries to figure out how the IoT fits into their business models and begin leveraging it for new and exciting (and, yes, perhaps scary at times) uses.

3. Look for Shaky Mergers & Acquisitions in the Big Data Arena

The EMC-Dell merger mess is the second such attempt at a merger involving EMC, which is the parent company of VMware. It isn’t going so smoothly. This merger might not be settled in 2016, and you can expect other such mergers involving cloud and big data technologies to go equally rocky. That’s because the landscape hasn’t quite adjusted to the massive earthquakes caused by these disruptive technologies. It could be some time before certain things are settled, including which tech solutions will rule (Hadoop? NoSQL?) and which companies will do the best job providing those solutions (open source solutions or certain software vendors?) 2016 could become the year for messy tech mergers.

4. NoSQL Becomes Mainstream

How are you going to manage those growing heaps of unstructured data? Say ‘Hello’ to NoSQL, everyone. You probably remember each other from last year’s trade shows.

Speaking of NoSQL, it isn’t the cool cat in town anymore. That’s not to say that NoSQL is a flop — actually it’s quite the opposite. So many organizations have adopted NoSQL that it just isn’t cool anymore. It’s just mainstream. Look for NoSQL to continue to gain ground in 2016.

5. Java Development Continues to Decline

Older technologies, however, are giving way to the newbies. Java has just proven its security vulnerabilities too many times, forcing developers to opt for some safer options like Node.js, Spark, and MongoDB. Java might not be pushing up daisies by year-end, but it will most definitely be in a care facility for the advanced in age.