Over the past 12 months I have circumnavigated the globe meeting customers, analysts and press, discussing the benefits of Amdocs’ Big Data portfolio.  Indeed one of the sessions we ran has been entitled “Big Data: From Hype to Reality” where I extolled the real business virtues of Big Data and dismissed the actual hype that had long been associated with this technology.  Indisputably, Big Data was the heavyweight champion of ‘hyped’ technologies in recent times.

Gartner issues its annual “Hype Cycle of emerging technologies” and over the last few years I have watched Big Data’s rise to the zenith of hype: it reached “the peak of inflated expectations” in 2013.  Then last year in 2014 it had fallen into the trough of disillusionment. So in 2015 the expectation was that Big Data would start to move into the slope of Enlightenment.  Astoundingly Gartner also thought that it would take 5-10 years for Big Data to reach the Plateau of productivity and mature.

Then at the end of the summer something amazing happened, Gartner issued its annual hype cycle for 2015 with one noticeable absentee, Big Data.  Where had it gone?  According to Betsy Burton, VP distinguished analyst who headed up the research and the report for Gartner, she noted that a decision was taken to retire Big Data from the hype cycle as it is “ no longer an emerging technology “ and has become “ prevalent in our lives.”

Read the rest on Amdocs Blog.