Signiant's New SkyDrop Hybrid SaaS System Helps Big Data Function

Big data projects are increasingly being recognized as a major part of normal business operations. The ability to comb through large amounts of data and spot patterns and trends alike is a welcome tool for businesses of all stripes. But big data—much as the name denotes—requires a lot of data from which to derive its patterns and trends, and that means moving huge quantities of the stuff around. That can be difficult to say the least, but with Signiant's SkyDrop, moving around huge amounts of data becomes a much simpler idea.

Business today run on large quantities of data; years of sales reports and condition mapping, huge video files for promotions or marketing efforts, call recording archives and the like - all combine to make a lot of data needing stored and moved around rapidly to work with later. But getting these files to where said files are needed at the time can be difficult, especially considering the transfer speeds of many file systems.

Signiant SkyDrop, however, looks to ratchet that up by offering a high transfer speed and scalability system to allow businesses access to just as much speed as is needed at the time, meaning there's not a lot of wasted capacity, nor a lack of it when it's needed most.

Reports suggest that SkyDrop can offer speeds up to 200 times faster than those realized on a standard HTTP-based access front, meaning quite a bit more can be done and in less time.

Signiant SkyDrop offers these benefits by using the same hybrid software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert)) platform that its popular Media Shuttle product turns to, allowing Signiant to offer SkyDrop as a complete managed service. This means all the local user need do is bring in some simple client software, and in turn get access to the capabilities that SkyDrop can offer. SkyDrop also comes with several tools at the developer level, meaning that integration with current systems becomes at least comparatively easy. Signiant's systems are already seen working with Amazon S3, with expansions set to hit as demand becomes available for Microsoft Azure, Google (News - Alert) Cloud Platform, and other similar cloud services.

Indeed, one of the big reasons that more businesses aren't putting big data projects to work is that there's a lot that goes into these projects. It's called “big data” for a reason, and requires a lot of data to be brought into the fold at any one time. Moving a lot of data around can tax even the most robust of networks, slowing down other processes, including those that are more vital to everyday operations than big data is. While big data projects offer incredible value in the long term, it's worth noting that big data projects take quite a bit of time to stage and run correctly, meaning that there are other operations—simpler, day-to-day operations—that must take precedence to ensure the business is operating long enough for big data to have an impact. With a service like Signiant's SkyDrop, however, a lot of the heavy lifting can be taken off internal systems and routed to the cloud, meaning more can be done with the same operation.

Those businesses eager to get in on big data operations—or just those who routinely deal with large quantities of data—should find a service like SkyDrop a powerful addition to the everyday arsenal.