As a long-term Cloud storage user I recently wanted to re-evaluate my options. New content management providers became available and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing on the new shinny tech out there. As I was considering the pros and cons of each option, I realized the apparent shift in my personal attitude towards cloud data storage over last few years. My concerns used to be solely with security. Now, while the data security is still critical, I am much more interested in data access, ownership, integration and its control. ...

About a year and a half ago, I wrote about Big Data Opportunities, focusing primarily on Leveraging Unused Data, Driving New Value From Summary Data and Harnessing Heterogeneous Data Sensors (more recently known as Internet of Things). Since that post, data space has exploded with numerous solutions addressing many of these areas. These solutions while mostly based on batch operations and limited to serial MapReduce jobs against frequently off-line, inadequately secured, Hadoop cluster, they do allow access to previously inaccessible data. ...

In general, Platform as a Service (PaaS) is developed by developers for developers. Of course they’re going to love it. It enables them to focus on the nuances of their applications — not on the day-to-day pointless activities that so often take their time away from solving real problems. ...