The Big Data space is heating up – to the point that many pundits already see it as the over-hyped heir to "cloud." The hype may be a bit much, but Big Data is already living up to its potential, transforming entire business lines, such as marketing, pharmaceutical research, and cyber-security.
While the space is still fairly new, IDC, for one, sees big things ahead. The research firm predicts that the market for Big Data technologies will reach $32.4 billion by 2017, or about six times the growth rate of the overall information and communication technology market.
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The startups below were chosen based on a mix of third-party validation (VC funding, named customers), experience (pedigree of the management team), and market potential (how unique is the product; how much pent-up demand is there for this sort of solution; how well are they positioned competitively). We also mixed slightly older startups on the brink of making it big with early stage startups exhibiting raw potential. (Watch the slideshow version of this story.)