5 low-profile startups that could
change the face of big data

Big data is hot, but infrastructure-level platforms such as Hadoop, which focus on storage and processing, still need help to take them into the mainstream. They need a killer app or two that will let companies analyze, visualize and act on all that data without hiring a team of Stanford Ph.Ds, or that will let developers write big-data apps without having to reinvent the wheel.

Here are five startups (in alphabetical order) either in stealth mode or just out of it that could help take Hadoop and its ilk to the promised land.

1. BloomReach
The stealth-mode BloomReach is taking a very targeted, very hands-free approach to big data for its customers. It's offering a SaaS-based product that job listings say is for

"helping leading online businesses uncover the highest quality, most relevant content sought by their consumers, when and where they want it."

2. Continuuity
Continuuity, the just-launched stealth-mode startup by former Yahoo VP and chief cloud architect Todd Papaioannou, wants to make it easier to build applications that can leverage both cloud computing and big data technologies.

3. Odiago
Odiago is the brainchild of Hadoop and analytics experts Christophe Bisciglia and Aaron Kimball, and aims to improve the state of web analytics. Its first product, Wibidata, which is in private beta, lets websites better analyze their user data to build more-targeted features. It's built atop Hadoop and HBase, but also plugs into companies' existing data-management and BI tools.

Two additional startups include

• Platfora, which wants to make big data analytics accessible to the masses
• Skytree trying to bring high-performance machine learning to mainstream companies.