Watson feels like the kind of big-ticket, complex product that enterprises increasingly eschew. But iteration is critical, particularly in the area of Big Data. Any Big Data project that starts with a $1 million check is almost certainly doomed to fail, because the very nature of Big Data is about iterating toward the right queries for one’s data.
And given how virtually all essential Big Data infrastructure is open source, there’s no need to start a Big Data project with a Big Check to Any Vendor, no matter how “surprisingly affordable” you proclaim a technology to be. Nor should it start with a classified ad as you search for Big Data talent. Indeed, following Gartner’s advice, it’s far easier to train an existing employee on Big Data technologies than it is to teach them your business.