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Finding vendors with a truly innovative, successful approach to big data can be as daunting as digging through the data itself. Although not a comprehensive list of the best (or biggest self-promoters) in the space, this roundup consists of big data vendors making waves or showing consistent promise.
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Hadapt

Hadapt specializes in integrating SQL with Apache Hadoop, or making the “elephant and pig fly,” as the analytic platform provider colloquially promises. Hadapt carries Yale University pedigree and millions of bucks from rounds of venture funding to back it up.
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Precog

Through REST APIs, the Boulder-based team at Precog comes at big data via purpose-built business applications. Precog carries an “obsessive” attention to developer use and the refreshing notion that big data doesn’t live and die with the Hadoop framework.
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Platfora

After two years of engineering and six months of beta testing, San Mateo, Calif.-based Platfora recently launched its namesake platform to bring business intelligence capabilities to big data pools in Hadoop. CEO Ben Werther says the release aims to speed past the months often required to connect Hadoop to the EDW and let “business analysts actually do something” with today’s unstructured and new data sources.
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YarcData

An enterprise division of supercomputer maker Cray, YarcData brings a small appliance into the enterprise – available for purchase or “rental” – to maximize the interesting capabilities of graphical search across messy and disparate data sets. With “graph search” terminology now taking hold over at a little social media network known as Facebook, YarcData sees itself as positioned for a unique approach to picking out gems and patterns from big data.
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Datameer

You don’t get much deeper into Hadoop than this team, part of the first community around the open source framework. Datameer has branched out with a namesake data integration and quality solution that bypasses a traditional data warehousing/data mart approach.
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SiSense

Behind some of big data’s most notable early wins at Target and Merck is SiSense’s Prism product. The vendor also continues to drum up data intrigue at SMBs, along with awards for functionality and speed.
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Kapow Software

While not new to the some-600 users of its products, Kapow is making some big value-adds in terms of integration and automation capabilities, according to Ventana’s Mark Smith. The bicoastal vendor also boasts an executive team with varied backgrounds in networking and visualization startups, including CTO (and frequent blogger) Stefan Andreasen.
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ZettaSet

ZettaSet recently got a huge nod as support system for Intel’s Hadoop launch. With $10 million in recent funding and another deal inked last year with IBM, there’s probably more attention ahead for the Mountain View maker of the Orchestrator management platform.
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Space-Time Insight

Past the far-reaching name, Space-Time Insight has also produced a real-world “situational intelligence” suite, which has been of particular interest to the industry marketplace. The vendor’s big-data breakdowns have no shortage of visualizations. The CEO and CTO bring SAP backgrounds.
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ClearStory Data

ClearStory Data offers a scalable application for data discovery and analysis across sources, and the straightforward presentation of business value to go with it. Information Management blogger Steve Miller found the vendor’s presentation alongside Berkeley university researchers as one of the big highlights from Strata 2013. This slideshow first appeared on Information Management.