At this weeks HPDiscover conference in Las Vegas, HP announced a number of interesting new offerings, the one that caught my attention was the nicely crafted acronym of HAVEn, so let's understand what it is - and what it is not. And I hope the movie buffs pardon the name bungling in this post's title, but this one was too tempting.
What is HAVEn
HAVEn is the bundling of a Hadoop based, Autonomy and Vertica encompassing, Enterprise securyity enabled platform that allow for the building of big data apps, lots of them, n to be precise. Got it? And for good measure HAVEn also includes ArcSight - another A if you want. The first HP application to be delivered on HAVEn is HP Operations Management, which is a very good showcase of big data capability for the platform. And is close to HP's home of helping IT, run IT better.
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From HP Presentation |
The other good news for HP is, that given HP is bundling existing products, everything that has been built in the past using Vertica, Autonomy and ArcSight - will now also work on HAVEn. Only enriched with enterprise security and the availability of a Hadoop Storage system. Which will make any potential move to HAVEn even more attractive for existing applications.
Proofpoint for Hadoop
As with many announcements, not too much specific could be gleaned on how HAVEn really will work, something to sort out in the weeks to come. But the usage of Hadoop is a great proof point for the maturity of this technology - and there are two options how HP may use Hadoop.
(1) Hadoop as another data source
This would be the low hanging fruit and a tacit admission that despite all the capability of Vertica and the sophisticated algorithms of Autonomy Idol - there is another key data source to get data from. Like many other BI / big data vendors HP may now admit to a co-existence scenario with Hadoop.
(2) Hadoop as the platform
This would be a much more ambitious approach than (1), making Hadoop the operating base and storage for all HAVEn data. And to some point the Autonomy announcement of allowing the Idol engine to run in a Hadoop kernel points in that direction. But it would still see HP operate the Vertica stores for high performance data.
As mentioned - we will see in the next weeks how HAVEn really will work - but regardless - a key validation of Hadoop as a viable platform and as a technology that has arrived to the enterprise - considering the uptake by HP something like the knighthood for Hadoop.
Clarification is needed
It's close to impossible to provide an assessment of HAVEn as a systems, since so little is known about it. HP will need to clarify a lot in the next weeks and I am wondering if HAVEn will be only a loose marketing term of bundled together products - or a true bigdata platform going former.
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From HP Presentation |
My hope for HAVEn is of course for it to be a true platform, that will not only enable HP itself, but also its extensive partner ecosystem to build the n applications on top that are part of the name. But for that to happen we would need the specs for HAVEn, what systems it runs on, how does it authenticate, access systems and data, move data etc - all things that need to be clarified.
The Services Dilemma
And like with all things HP this days, we get always reminded of the availability of HP professionals to help customers with these offerings. The irony for HP is, that by integrating the components of HAVEn better, it takes away some of the services revenue.
But it's the right strategy since customers will not have too much of patience left to pay for integration of HP acquired products. At some point the integration will be simply expected between synergistic products. And that HP has a synergistic big data play across Autonomy, Arcsight and Vertica has just been proven by the HAVEn announcements.
Advice for HAVEn component customers
If you are using Arcsight, Autonomy or Vertica today, keep using them. You probably will end up with HAVEn automatically, as HP integrates these components. Try to understand early what HAVEn is though, so you don't pay for custom services for something that you will get from HP soon and likely for free.
Advice for HAVEn prospects
It's too early to tell what HAVEn will be and even more far away from predicting any market success. But if you are to embark into a big data project, this is one of the more interesting platform announcements in the last quarters. So try to learn more and let HP explain this to you in detail.
Advice for HP competitors
If you have no bundling and integration plans for complimentary big data pieces you have acquired, HAVEn is your wake up call. If you are a single big data product player - evaluate partnerships asap - as more integrated big data product announcements are on the horizon.
Advice for HP
Provide a lot more information on HAVEn. Explain the role of Hadoop. Put real product integration investment behind this to leverage the 2 + 2 = 5 synergy benefits you can hope for.
MyPOV
HP has an early mover advantage now by bundling the acquired big data pieces in its realm. The questions is, what took HP so long, but that's a consideration of the past. It will be interesting to see how bundles like HAVEn will change the dynamics of the big data market away from many products and many hands to fewer products and less hands to be successful with big data.
But for now congrats to HP for a promising launch - execution needs to follow.
