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AWS Remains Leader in Top Big Data Platforms

By Monica Gleberman
Contributing Writer

Gartner has released the results of its annual graphic that shows the competitive positioning of major technology companies. The company works on gathering research to determine how companies like SAP, Oracle, and IBM (News - Alert) are doing in the marketplace, revealing who did well this year and who could use some improvement.

Gartner’s Magic Quadrant 2014 for cloud computing shows that Amazon has maintained its leadership position (it was also number one last year), and that Microsoft (News - Alert) has slowly been able to inch its way up the ranks, becoming a contender once again in the technology market.

According to Information Week, the top 16 big data analytic platforms are, in no particular order: 1010data (News - Alert), cloudera, HP, InfiniDB, MAPR Technologies, Pivotal, Actian, Hortonworks, Infobright, Microsoft, SAP, Amazon web services, IBM, Kognitio, Oracle, and Teradata (News - Alert).

Data shows that companies such as the broad-based data management vendors, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, have slowly moved up in importance. They offer everything from data integration software and data management systems to other intelligence software to help companies focus on their goals and reach their targets.

It’s not a surprise that Amazon Web Services have remained on top of its game two years in a row. The company offers everything from online advertising, its own cloud platform, digital media, rental services, developer solutions, and has even begun to expand in to original programming that is purely based on reactions from Amazon users. It has also become more readily available in commonly used gaming products such as Xbox and Wii.

“Amazon also offers an advanced cloud architecture with multiple availability zones. It has the richest array of IaaS features and PaaS-like capabilities, and continues to expand its service offerings. It is the provider most frequently chosen for strategic adoption," the Gartner (News - Alert) Magic Quadrant analysts reported. “"It is second in terms of cloud IaaS market share -- albeit a distant second -- but far ahead of its smaller competitors.”

Now only time will tell if companies such as SAP, 1010data, and other companies towards the top of the list, will continue to give Amazon a run for their money or just come short of being at the top of Gartner’s list.