Big Data & Analytics: IBM provides mobile apps, analytics for US Open

Editor’s Note: The ecosystem of big data and analytics, and its intersection with mobile networks and cloud computing has increasing relevance to wireless in areas that include service assurance, customer experience management, mobile marketing, location-based services and more. Here is a look at the week’s big data news. 
—IBM has partnered with the U.S. Tennis Association to support the mobile experience at the U.S. Open tournament. The company created iOS and Android apps that are free for download and redesigned the event’s website to integrate more real-time and historical data analytics from the matches. IBM said its SlamTracker analyzes more than 41 million pieces of information from eight years of Grand Slam match data and will enable fans to visualize real-time data from the event, including ball and player movements.
IBM said that many businesses can learn from the technology that the USTA is putting in place to support the U.S. Open, noting that “during most of the year, the USTA runs like a small business, but during the two-week U.S. Open tournament, it becomes a data and performance-hungry organization that could rival a large bank, hospital or retailer. …  The USTA can serve as a model for how businesses of all sizes can take advantage of sophisticated mobile, analytics, cloud and social computing technologies.”
—IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and enterprise analytics data management company Cloudera furthered their working relationship this week with a focus on big data and analytics. TCS’ global team of big data experts are now certified through Cloudera’s certified professional program, in what Cloudera said is the largest group of such professionals in the world. Meanwhile, TCS’ products have been validated through Cloudera’s technology program, designed to simplify adoption of Hadoop platforms and applications.
Dr. Satya Ramaswamy, who is global head for TSC digital enterprise, said that Hadoop “is fast becoming the platform of choice for big data analytics” and noted that the two companies have been partnering on individual clients and that the new partnership expands the reach for TCS’ big data solutions and engineering along with Cloudera’s Hadoop expertise.
—Text Analysis International is now offering unstructured examination of text language to be analyzed in the cloud. The company’s Natural Language Processing Cloud service, or NLP Cloud, can be used for sentiment analysis, resume processing or tailoring to specific applications.
The company has also built a Natural Language Processing (NLP) programming language called NLP++ to allow processing of natural language in similar ways to HTML or Java.
—A new report  says that the network analytics market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 30% between 2013 and 1028. Telecom is expected to be the vertical that dominates network analytics, with North America as the largest projected market.
—Also worth noting this week, Yahoo completed its purchase of app analytics company Flurry. Read more details here.