We’re in a phase where the exponential growth of cloud computing feels unstoppable. Many industry observers are starting to predict not just that clouds will be pervasive, but that they will, before long, be the only platforms for IT infrastructure, applications, and commerce.

Big data analytics may be the trigger that accelerates us toward all things cloud. Big data analytics is the cloud’s killer application — and also an inextricable component of many other hot, on-demand services that live natively in the cloud. After all, social, mobility, IoT, and security applications are huge sources of big data and also avidly consume both the data and the full range of advanced analytics that leverage it all.