For all the Big Data hullabaloo, the end goal for most invested businesses is actually quite simple. Just answer this question,”How do we sell more to our customers?” But between here and there is a vast data lake, and traversing it can seem daunting. You’ll be relieved to know that starting small isn’t just OK — some data professionals say it’s the surest route to valuable insight.

Colin Mahony, senior VP and GM of the Big Data Platform at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (HPE), has been working in Big Data since before it was called Big Data. He described to Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Paul Gillin (@pgillin), cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, during the HPE Big Data Conference how HPE’s customers’ greatest aha moments are born.

“Somebody just has a question or they have something that they want to test. They throw out a hypothetical, and then they find the data,” Mahony explained. “And they see from maybe not even huge set of data, maybe it’s just a subset of data. But they look historically at something, and they’re able to replay what happened and then very quickly prove that there’s a positive return on understanding that data.”

The easy way out

Mahony went on to say that HPE’s Vertica (a Big Data SQL Analytics Platform) is uniquely able to facilitate that process of inquiry through its leveraging of diverse tools from across the ecosystem — something that few independent players are able to do.

“Being able to let people ask any questions that they want against the data and serving it out in a fast, ‘performant’ and efficient way, it turns out, is pretty tough,” he said.

The end for endless innovation?

Mahony spoke about the limits facing the explosion of innovation we’ve seen — in Big Data and across tech — particularly open source. “Maybe it’s my East Coast roots, I don’t know, but I think building sustainable business models is really important,” he said, adding that there is growing pressure on startups to prove profitability upfront rather than developing first and betting that monetization will follow.

“I think everybody’s being forced into some of the fundamentals that any good business has to show, and that is leading to some challenges, but I do think there will always be innovation,” he stated.

Mahony said he thinks Vertica’s position sandwiched between super high-tier legacy Big Data services and open-source disruptors will help them provide solutions to a broad customer base.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the HPE Big Data Conference.

Photo by SiliconANGLE