Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK – 26 November, 2012 – A survey of delegates attending the recent Talend Connect industry conference in London reveals that the use of open source software to manage big data is on the brink of rapid growth in the UK. The survey, run by global open source software leader, Talend, polled the opinions of nearly 100 of its partners, customers, users and prospects, most of whom were either IT developers, managers and architects, directors or departmental heads.

While 17% of those surveyed said they were definitely using open source solutions today to manage big data, a further 29% of respondents said they were unsure if they were utilising the technology or not. 45% of respondents said they were actively considering using open source to manage big data, highlighting a likely growth surge for the approach. Just 9% said they had no plans to implement open source at all. 

From its inception, open source technology has been key to massive data management and offers an approach that helps generate faster, more accurate results at a fraction of the cost of alternative solutions.  No longer seen as risky bets, open source data and analytics solutions are now integral to many businesses and are widely viewed as a genuine alternative to proprietary software. Furthermore, open source projects such as Apache Hadoop and its ecosystem represent the core of the big data technology stack today

“At Talend, we are not surprised that the prospects for open source as a tool for big data management look positive,” says Ciaran Dynes, senior director of product management, Talend. “Open source is increasingly being viewed as a key component of robust, cost-effective enterprise applications and infrastructure.  As our survey demonstrates, it is rapidly ‘becoming a mainstream technology in the UK, not just across the vendor community, but within all types of customer organisations.”

Skills Shortage
The majority (58%) of respondents identified a lack of in-house expertise as the main barrier preventing companies from capitalising on big data.  The need for the kind of efficient and effective approach to big data management that open source can deliver is also clear from the survey findings. Many conference attendees were worried about how well prepared their organisations were to manage exponential data growth with nearly one in three (31%) saying they were poorly prepared.    

“Organisations are increasingly aware of the opportunity that big data presents but many are hesitating to take the plunge into full implementations. In a rapidly emerging market like big data, domain expertise is critical,” continues Dynes, “Vendors like Talend can deliver this in two main ways. They can lower the barrier for businesses to achieve the benefits of big data through open source technology, but they can also partner with systems integrators that can provide customers with the expertise and high-performance enterprise technology necessary to design, implement and operate strategies successfully and give end-users the confidence to step boldly forward into the big data future.”

About Talend
Talend is the recognised market leader in open source integration solutions.  The company’s holistic integration platform helps organisations minimise costs and maximise the value of data integration, ETL, data quality, master data management, application integration and business process management, while supporting their shift toward the Cloud and Big Data.  More than 3,500 paying customers worldwide, including eBay, ING, The Weather Channel, Deutsche Post and Allianz, subscribe to Talend’s solutions and services. With over 20 million downloads, Talend’s products are the most trusted integration solutions in the world. The company has major offices in North America, Europe and Asia, and a global network of technical and services partners.  For more information, please visit http://uk.talend.com