The rapid maturation of application infrastructure technologies and a continued dramatic decline in the cost of semiconductor technologies are paving the way for mainstream use of in-memory computing (IMC). Gartner, Inc. said that although the in-memory data grid (IMDG) market, a key IMC segment, is small, it is likely to grow fast and to reach $1 billion by 2016.
“The relentless declines in DRAM and NAND flash memory prices, the advent of solid-state drive technology and the maturation of specific software platforms have enabled IMC to become more affordable and impactful for IT organizations,” said Massimo Pezzini, vice president and Gartner Fellow.
Until recently, only the most technologically savvy organizations — for example, in vertical markets like financial trading, telecommunications, military and defense, online entertainment and logistics — could cope with the high cost and complexity of adopting IMC. It is an emerging paradigm enabling user organisations to develop applications that run advanced queries or perform complex transactions on very large datasets at least one order of magnitude faster — and in a more scalable way — than when using conventional architectures.
The rapid penetration of IMC and its likely adoption by at least 35 percent of midsize and large organisations through 2015 (up from less than 10 percent in 2012) will be determined by factors such as expanding demand for real-time analytics for ever larger volumes of fast-changing data, growing requirements for 24/7 operations driven by globalization, and the increasing availability of IMC-enabled packaged business applications. However, several issues, such as a lack of standards, the scarcity of skills, relative architectural complexity, security concerns, and monitoring and management challenges, will need to be addressed for IMC to achieve mainstream adoption.
Although the IMC application infrastructure market is in flux and fragmented, with more than 50 software vendors, growing adoption will continue to drive established vendors and start-ups to invest in IMC technologies. “During the next two to three years, IMC will become a key element in the strategy of organizations focused on improving effectiveness and business growth. Organizations looking for cost containment and efficiency will also increasingly embrace IMC,” said Pezzini.
