 Our #BigDataSV was a smash hit this week, broadcasting live from theCUBE on SiliconANGLE.tv a host of interviews with Big Data practitioners, thought-leaders, vendors, venture capitalists, and analysts. This week's Best of theCUBE series is a great place to start, with an awesome interview with Eron Kelly, GM of Product Marketing – Data Platform at Microsoft, and John Kreisa, VP of Strategic Marketing at Hortonworks, who sat down with our own John Furrier. They discuss the partnership between Microsoft and Hortonworks, and discuss how they are contributing through open source initiative towards making Big Data more usable. Also this week at #BigDataSV, we covered everything that was going on across the street at the Strata Conference. The going trend around Big Data is at the intersection of cloud and mobile, as cloud analytics specialist SiSense, among others, unveils a new version of its flagship offering that has been optimized for smartphones and tablets. Bitcoin was also heavy in the news this week as the issues MtGox faced sent the price of bitcoins down somewhat significantly, but our own Mike Wheatley discussed how 'Bad News' is 'Good News' for Bitcoin. And speaking of MtGox, it was a long week of pass-the-blame game as they blamed the troubles they faced on the Bitcoin protocol itself, something that the Bitcoin protocol core developers quickly denounced has hogwash. And last but not least, Apple quietly found its way into the news as it was reported that Apple will be unveiling its new set-top box this April – just in time for the spring season. But, this was prior to the news that Comcast is buying Time Warner Cable for $45 billion in an all-stock purchase...and Time Warner Cable is the company reported to be working with Apple on the set-top box. Where does that leave Apple now? How this all plays out will be a really interesting next few months. Lastly, Apple's plan of releasing two different iPhones come this September, the iPhone 6, was "confirmed" according to leaked photos that surfaced. Those photos show Apple releasing a 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones. -Kristen Nicole Martin, Senior Managing Editor | |  Microsoft and Hortonworks : Code-committed BFFs | #BigDataSV This week’s ”Best of theCUBE” series features an awesome interview with Eron Kelly, GM Product Marketing – Data Platform at Microsoft and John Kreisa, VP of Strategic Marketing at Hortonworks as they discuss the Microsoft and Hortonworks partnership. Hadoop offers great distribution and is a preferred platform for Microsoft’s Big Data solutions. On Monday, Microsoft announced the general availability of Power BI. Power BI is a service that lets end users grab data off of Hadoop, manipulate it, and then view that manipulation with great visualizations. |  ‘Bad news’ is ‘good news’ for Bitcoin The real reason that Bitcoin has been hitting the headlines so often is not because it’s weak. Rather, it’s because Bitcoin has never been stronger, supported by a growing community of users scattered all over the world, on the cusp of being legitimized by the US government, with it’s use becoming more widespread by the day. With so many people staking so much in Bitcoin, it’s little wonder that any snippet of information – good or bad – makes the headlines. The “bad news” just confirms the “good news” that Bitcoin is getting stronger by the day. |  10 of the best data center infographics online today Emerson Network Power’s “2013 State of the Data Center” illustrates that global dependence on everything digital is pushing IT to the forefront of the organization. As a fun fact: Google spent $7.35 billion in capital expenditures on data center expansions in 2013. To help parse out relevant statistics and information on data storage, we’ve put together a collection of the 10 best data center infographics across the internet. | |  SiSense optimizes analytics platform for mobile | #BigDataSV At the Strata Conference in Santa Clara this week, cloud analytics specialist SiSense unveiled a new version of its flagship offering that has been optimized for smartphones and tablets. With the number of mobile devices set to exceed the world’s population this year, the update is a natural (and arguably overdue) evolution for a startup seeking to make data insights more accessible to end-users. Mobile is key to making data more accessible to end users, but anticipating a bevy of varied access points through browser applications and devices doesn’t come without its challenges. |  MtGox blames troubles on the Bitcoin protocol, Core developers beg to differ
Over the weekend MtGox went offline for several hours and it took the noted bitcoin exchange almost a day and a half to reach out to customers with a press release explaining what happened. The gist? MtGox blames troubles on the Bitcoin protocol itself, blaming an issue that has been known by the community since 2011. This fact seems to be the driving factor behind what’s been happing to the MtGox exchange: the underlying infrastructure is similar to an old house with bad wiring and poor plumbing. |  Apple TV to be unveiled in April, iPhone 6 will come in two flavors The report comes from Bloomberg, and claims that Apple will be unveiling its new set-top box this April – just in time for the spring season. Meanwhile, Bloomberg also claims that the company is working on delivering more content to users. Apple was said to be in talks with Time Warner Cable, which would allow Apple TV users to access more live TV content. But since Bloomberg's report, we've learned that Comcast has bought Time Warner Cable for $45 billion in an all-stock deal. Does that affect Apple's plans with Apple TV -- it has to right? In other Apple news, the company is said to be sticking with its plan of releasing two different iPhones come this September, so that would be an iPhone 6. According to leaked photos that surfaced, Apple will be releasing 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhones. | | |
