Experts explain how Hadoop helps

Hadoop is the big data analytics engine that powers a variety of open-source BI applications. The architecture is relatively new, and many in the technology field are eager to explain the benefits of the architecture and why it has proven so important to businesses that have become early adopters.

While InformationWeek researcher Sreedhar Kajeepeta urges businesses to purchase a commercial Hadoop project or employ experts in the technology, he also holds praise for the software as open source. Since every Hadoop deployment is based on the same open code, he states that helpful information on and free discussion about the architecture's features are widespread online.

"Hadoop is the iron hammer we use for taking down big data problems," tech sector insider William Lazzaro told Computerworld. "It allows us to take in and process large amounts of data in a short amount of time."

A Wall Street Transcript survey found that Hadoop and its big data peers had already made an indelible impact on IT departments, with 68 percent of surveyed CIOs increasing storage space for data in the coming year. Industry insider Andrew Nowinski told the source that while the numbers were high, the big data market would only increase in 2012.