Interview: Eli Collins, Cloudera on Evolution and Future of Big Data Ecosystem
We discuss the change in Big Data priorities, risks, Big Data ecosystem, rise of data culture in organizations, challenges, advice and more.
You can find him on Twitter at @elicollins.
Here is my interview with him:
Anmol Rajpurohit: Q1. Can you please describe your current role at Cloudera?
Eli Collins: I work in our CTO office. I’m currently focused
AR: Q2. In terms of a hype cycle, where would you currently place Big Data? Are we still in the hype phase? Or, are the expectations now mostly pragmatic?
EC: I’ve seen a drop in excessive big data publicity over the past year, it’s an established term at this point. The stories are shifting from stories about the technology itself to stories about how people are using data to make life better. The Internet of Things seems to be the hype dejour.
AR: Q3. How have the Big Data priorities changed in last five years?
EC:
As the basic technology matures there’s a shift towards making it more accessible. We’re talking more about methodologies than capabilities. We’re paying more attention to integrating with the rest of the data ecosystem. We’re moving up stack as the foundational technologies get more mature.
AR: Q4. What are the major risks posed by Big Data? What risk mitigation strategy do you propose for those risks?
EC: I’m not sure there are inherent risks in big data. Like any technology it
AR: Q5. How would you describe the Big Data ecosystem?
Now there are dozens of big data companies that are building new products to serve this part of the data management market, and the existing players are adapting their product portfolios. For example, almost every major data management company ships or integrates with the Apache Hadoop ecosystem at this point. This is not to say Hadoop is the only big data technology, just a prominent example.
AR: Q6. We have seen great advancements in the Big Data technology over the past few years. Do you think that the executive mindset and organizational culture has evolved at a similar pace to embrace Big Data?
EC: It’s evolving. I was recently in a meeting where one of the board members of a large company flew most of their executive staff halfway around the world to get educated on big data. They see how their competitors are using data, they see how new
AR: Q7. Currently, what are the most common bottlenecks in extracting value from Big Data projects?
EC:
AR: Q8. Where do you see Big Data headed in the next 2-3 years?
EC: Hopefully, as it continues to get baked into all the products and services we consume, it’s less of a thing. Over the next 2 to 3 years it will enable analytics to be a lot more pervasive. Hopefully we’ll take it for granted.
AR: Q9. What are the key criteria that a company must assess while selecting a commercial Hadoop platform vendor?
AR: Q10. What is the best advice you have got in your career?
EC: Be open to new things and optimize for learning. Unless you’ve known what you want to do your whole life and really enjoy doing that thing, you’ll need to change, and be able to adapt well to change. A lot of other advice can be derived from this. For example, if you optimize for learning you want to be around people who are smarter and know more than you.
AR: Q11. What was the last book that you read and liked? What do you like to do when you are not working?
EC: I enjoyed Flash Boys by Michael Lewis. Unrelated, I keep hoping someone will write The Soul of a New Machine for something newer than the minicomputer. Work and spending time with my wife takes up most of my time. I also enjoy spending time with friends, exercising and reading. I’m not a snowflake.
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