Think Big Analytics nabs $3M to help you with Hadoop

After three years of operating under the radar, Think Big Analytics is ready for its big debut.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based startup leverages open-source computing frameworks Hadoop and NoSQL to bring “big data” to large companies. The company may also offer consulting services, such as assisting clients in prioritizing use cases before working with a Hadoop vendor like Cloudera, GigaOm reports.

To bring its product to market, the founding team has raised a massive $3 million seed round from former Cisco executive Dan Scheinman, with participation from the venture firm WI Harper Group.

The market is full of big data and analytics startups, which are competing for customers against legacy vendors like SAP.

However, investors see massive opportunity for these startups to appeal to companies that are grappling with vast quantities of potentially valuable data. Analysts have reported that both chief marketing officers and chief information officers will carve out a slice of their budget to spend on big data technologies in the coming years.

Early customers include NetApp and Quantcast — the former company of Think Big founder Ron Bodkin. In an interview, Bodkin said inspiration hit on in spring 2010. He announced to dinner guests that he intended to quit a steady job at as the vice president of engineering at Quantcast to help companies use analytics tools.

“Our goal is to be to enterprises what Google is for consumers — the fastest response engine for ad-hoc queries,” said Bodkin. The technology is different from legacy vendors due to its emphasis on helping companies generate real value from the data, and the speed — “questions [are] answered in minutes, not hours,” he said.