Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Constantin Delivanis, CEO of BDNA (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Bridge for us where your introduction of the Internet of Things comes in here.  Of these applications you described, none of those speak to that trend.

Constantin Delivanis: Let’s take MRIs as an example. In this particular case, they do not have a silo: we grab the data directly from the devices. You have to have both. Enterprises, leaving aside IP-enabled devices, for example, have a lot of silos out there. That is the first point of interest: “Organize my silos, tell me what I have, and give me context. Then you can start adding devices.” This is the opportunity. You need this data layer to be able to do data filtering, aggregation, and contextualizing whether you grab it from a silo or from a device itself.

SM: Is Service Now the only system you are working with?

CD: [Our] data as a service platform has APIs that can be absorbed by any application or process. I didn’t mean to imply that we work only with service companies. But the corporations we work with absorb data and put it back to their own CMDBs, asset management where there is HPSF [Hewlett-Packard support framework] management or Atrium CMDB [configuration management database], we don’t care who the consumer of this contextual data is. We don’t care who the sources are that provide us with the data, nor the sources that consume the data. This is important, because applications can no longer sustain this explosion of data. They cannot embed this dynamic within their applications and change the logic. That is why the disintermediation of this data is so critical.

SM: So you are saying there is a layer emerging and you are playing in it, which is a data layer from devices as well as applications, and there is a gap you are filling wherein data needs to be separated from the applications’ process in a different place and then brought into the applications after processing and organizing happens in a different layer.

CD: That is exactly right.

SM: The logic of the application can then pick up that contextualized data and work on it.

CD: Yes. For example, you can say, “This battery or this MRI has a recall,” so service management can fix it.

SM: Let’s double click down on the trend of the Internet of Things. You have chosen to work in this layer, which is between data and applications, and brokering that process of data talking to applications. Where else are open opportunities from where you sit? Where would you pinpoint entrepreneurs to look against the Internet of Things trend, as it is related to big data?

CD: What is going to happen once this data from the things starts flooding in, will be the need for people to create simple applications and use this type of contextual data to drive the systems. It is going to be a reality.

I envision a few things. You will see a trend where you see the platform as a service becoming another layer. You have data as a service, and on top of it you will see a platform as a service coming up, where the processes and all the modules needed for taking this data and creating applications quickly, on the fly, are happening. You can look at the trends in the industry, whether you see EMC presentations or Service Now – this is a trend.

The opportunity for entrepreneurs to use platform as a service to create targeted applications is where the game is going to be. There is no question in my mind about that. There is a big need for very simple applications that answer very specific questions. The era of massive applications or installations that take two or three years to be implemented is gone. It is going to be eclipsing in the next five or ten years. But the trend of being able as a user to go in and ask a specific question about, “What shall I do? Let me see the ticket that will tell me which intelligent pumps in the Mojave Desert needs calibration?” for example, is going to need specific applications, and people will be able to explore it. You see it now in your mobile devices, where you see all these applications being pumped in day in and day out. You also see this in the enterprise.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Constantin Delivanis, CEO of BDNA
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