The financial services domain, where real-time is measured in milliseconds, holds particular interest for big data applications and vendors for a number of reasons: architecture, regulation, transparency, decision-making, and the need for speed.

Recently the TABB Group, a consultancy focused exclusively on capital markets, published a report on Real-Time Big Data Analytics in Financial Services. That, in itself, is a tell-tale sign: big data is central to the financial sector, to the point where a specialized consultancy devotes effort in analyzing and discussing data architectures. Findings in the ITRS-sponsored report solidify this conclusion, as all the firms TABB Group spoke with reported using or testing big data analytics.

It is clear that the financial sector is a big data champion. What is perhaps less clear are the reasons and the ways in which big data is used. Factoring in the findings of another report, the 2016 Big Data Maturity Survey conducted by AtScale in cooperation with the major Hadoop distribution vendors (Cloudera, Hortonworks and MapR), leads to some interesting observations. The survey, featuring results collected from 2,550 respondents working in over 1,400 companies across 77 countries, shows that 73 percent of respondents are now in production with Hadoop (vs. 65 percent last year).

This is in line with the general feeling in the industry: Hadoop is eating the big data world. It is therefore safe to conclude things would be no different for the financial sector. Indeed, looking at Cloudera, Hortonworks, and MapR, we see all of them making specific reference to their offering and clientèle in the financial sector, and boasting success there. This is not paradoxical — success in this case is not a zero sum game. And it’s not a Hadoop-exclusive game either.

The million dollar question though is “why”. Why are big data vendors drawn to the financial sector like bees to nectar? The obvious answer: bees and honey — follow the money. There’s money aplenty in the financial sector, which means it can afford to pay for its vices, or needs, depending on how you choose to look at it.

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