Last month Apiary was named a Cool Vendor 2014 in Web Computing by leading technology analyst firm Gartner. This month, fellow Heavybit member company Treasure Data was also named a Cool Vendor — this time in the category of big data.
According to Gartner’s latest report, “big data is moving from being a topic and a concept in itself, to becoming a value-add to existing use cases, such as data science, data integration, analytics and information innovation.” Congratulations to Treasure Data for leading the pack.
The significance of the Cool Vendor designation is by no means lost on us. For years, Gartner’s Cool Vendor program has selected the top companies across more than 90 IT, big data and technology-related topics. Each selection is an indication of the emerging leaders in the industry.
Some past recipients of the Cool Vendor status include Heroku in the PAAS category (2010) and New Relic in IT Operations and Virtualization (2009). The program inspires large organizations to look to these smaller companies for competitive advantage, better practices and more efficient processes. And often in the process, the larger partnerships propel Cool Vendors into the spotlight.
Said Gartner’s Marketing VP in an earlier interview, “Cool vendors are a signal of what’s coming in the future. They show what’s possible in terms of technologies, different approaches and different business models. It’s a way for end-user companies to future-proof their technologies and decide what to invest in for the future.”
Congratulations to both Treasure Data and Apiary for making this year’s Cool Vendor list.