What Splunk and Infobright have done is to take "what is possible" with machine-generated data and made it practical. As evidenced by the amazing success of the Splunk IPO last week, "big data" - as in machine-generated data - got a big lift.

According to Don DeLoach, CEO of Infobright, it takes him back to the late '90s when IPOs would double in a matter of hours. I asked Don why he thought that this was such a big event. He said that it is a data point that acknowledges the big data market is really coming into its own.

In my conversation with Don, he mentioned that emerging landscapes such as smart power grids and smart power management systems are indicative of where the explosion of machine-generated data is going. Don also talked about his respect for the other vendors in the big data space - including Splunk and IBM's Smarter Planet - and added that these types of systems will bring along another huge wave of usage of machine-generated data.

You can get the big picture on big data by reading my interviews with Don DeLoach of Infobright and Sanjay Mehta of Splunk to get the big picture on big data. (Clicking on the link for each company will take you to my interviews as featured on the BeyeNETWORK.)

It's going to be exciting to watch this big data space continue to grow, not only in size but also in capabilities!