Are you trying to overcome the challenges of taking your big data projects from pilot to production? Do you want to harness big data to increase customer loyalty, reduce fraud, and improve operational efficiency? Or are you using big data to solve some of the biggest challenges in your industry, whether that’s healthcare, financial services, insurance, retail, manufacturing, media and entertainment, or government services? Then Informatica can help. We are already working with customers around the globe to solve some of the toughest business, IT, and human challenges through big data.

The Challenge:
Enter for a chance to win software and services in the Informatica $1 Million Big Data Ready Challenge. Each finalist will receive a six month unlimited node software license worth forty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. Each quarterly winner will receive additional professional services worth sixty-thousand dollars. The grand prize winner will receive (in addition to the finalist and winner prizes) up to $5000 towards reasonable expenses incurred with attending the Informatica World Conference 2017. To enter, please tell us about your big data initiative. Answer the four questions on the form below and submit your entry using the Submit Now button.

Qualified entries will be evaluated by our panel of judges, comprised of industry analysts, big data experts, and Informatica executives (full list below). The judges will apply a specific set of evaluation criteria to select the finalists and winners. Judges will evaluate based on the most compelling business goals, expected ROI and desired business outcomes, creative and measurable use-cases, and descriptive big data management challenges.

The Informatica $1 Million Big Data Ready Challenge is open now and will run until December 2016. Entries will be accepted every month until November 1, 2016. Each quarter, the judges will select six finalists and two winners. The one grand prize winner will be awarded at the Informatica Big Data Ready Summit in December 2016.

The Rules:
Answer all the questions and submit the form below using Submit Now button. The panel of judges will determine the winner based on the following:

1. Most compelling and measurable business goal, and most impactful expected ROI
2. Use of a wide variety of data or new types of data, large data volumes, and different latencies
3. Most descriptive use-case and requirements to meet the desired business outcome
4. Most descriptive big data management challenges expressed in the context of the three pillars of big data management: big data integration, big data governance, and big data security. (Learn more about the three pillars.)

Please note: the winner must have a Hadoop cluster installed and configured with at least 10 nodes using a Hadoop Software Configuration that meets the requirements set forth in the rules found here, and must be willing to be a public reference if satisfied with results.

The Informatica $1 Million Big Data Ready Challenge and all entries are subject to applicable rules found here.

The Timing:

• September 29 to October 1, 2015: Informatica announces the Informatica $1 Million Big Data Ready Challenge at Strata+Hadoop World 2015 in New York.
• January 2016 (date to be confirmed): Informatica announces the first two finalists at Informatica Sales Kickoff event.
• January – December 2016: Two finalists will be announced each month.
• March 29-31, 2016: Two winners from the finalists for the first quarter of 2016 will be announced at Strata+Hadoop World in San Jose, Calif.
• May 23-26, 2016: Two winners from the finalists for the second quarter will be announced at InformaticaWorld in San Francisco, Calif.
• September 2016 (date to be confirmed): Two winners from the finalists for the third quarter will be announced at Strata+Hadoop World 2016 in New York.
• December 2016 (date to be confirmed): Two winners from the finalists for the fourth quarter, including the Grand Prize Winner, will be announced at the Informatica Big Data Ready Summit in December 2016.

• Professor Tom Davenport, President’s Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College
• Dr. Claudia Imhoff - President and Founder of the Boulder BI Brain Trust and Intelligent Solutions, Inc. A thought leader, visionary, and practitioner in the rapidly growing fields of business intelligence and customer focused-strategy
• David S. Linthicum is a consultant at Cloud Technology Partners and an internationally recognized industry expert and thought leader
• Mark Smith, CEO and Chief Research Officer, Ventana Research
• Amit Walia, Informatica’s EVP and Chief Product Officer
• Ray Wang, Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Constellation Research