Investment in Hadoop remains tentative as lack of skills hamper adoption and firms puzzle over its business value, according to Gartner.
A survey conducted in February and March shows that only 44% of 284 Gartner Research Circle members polled had already invested in Hadoop or had plans to do so within the next two years. Respondents include IT and business leaders.
"Despite considerable hype and reported successes for early adopters, the early adopters don't appear to be championing for substantial Hadoop adoption over the next 24 months," said Nick Heudecker, research director at Gartner. “In fact, there are fewer who plan to begin in the next two years than already have."
Skills gaps continue to be a major adoption inhibitor for 57% of respondents, while figuring out how to get value from Hadoop was cited by 49% of respondents.
Those respondents who are actively piloting or deploying Hadoop report small numbers of users accessing the cluster with 70% of respondents having between one and 20 users accessing Hadoop and a surprising 4% reporting zero users.
"One of the core value propositions of Hadoop is that it is a lower-cost option to traditional information infrastructure,” said Heudecker.. “However, the low numbers of users relative to the cost of cluster hardware, as well as any software support costs, may mean Hadoop is failing to live up to this promise."