The future of Big Data on microservers

Although current limitations on clock rates and 32-bit architecture will limit the application of ARM-based microserver technology in the near future, the availability of 64-bit SoCs in 2014 will usher in the dawn of the age of Big Data systems based on microserver technology. With partnerships already announced between major Big Data software vendors and the suppliers of microserver SoC technology, significant deployments of Big Data on ARM-based microservers should be in production by the end of next year. If industry analysts’ predictions hold true, as much as 20 percent of the enterprise information-technology infrastructure could be running on microserver technology by as early as 2016. 

However, Jim McGregor, principal analyst at market-research firm TIRIAS Research, points out that the collection, management, analysis, and delivery of insights from Big Data go beyond the server platform. “Microservers are part of the solution, but not the entire solution,” he said. “Going forward, we will have to look at everything from consumer devices to the cloud as a distributed computing platform that must be designed as a complete solution.”

Regardless of the final form Big Data solutions take and where microserver technology is applied, expect Big Data to be a big part of the rapidly emerging microserver-technology ecosystem.