There's so much hype over big data, analytics, machine learning, predictive analytics etc. In silicon valley, we're predisposed to think this disruption is the result of startups, tech companies (google/yahoo certainly get a lot of credit), and top engineering universities. But the truth is the only company effectively doing, and more importantly, selling this stuff at scale is IBM. Everyone in the data management space is hoping to get just a piece of IBM's pie. While we talk about the latest updates in hadoop and spark, IBM is closing $50m deals with telcos, banks, and governments all over the world. If you're a startup in analytics and you don't think of IBM as a competitor, you're probably naive or your market isn't big enough.
I think the strategy is not to compete with IBM at first and there are plenty of potential clients out there.
Banks and big government won't switch to trust a startup after working with IBM for twenty years. The risk of a failing startup and buyout is a real risk. Even should you do such transition, it will take a long time. Maybe for small components you can switch within months.
I like PG's advise to startup founders: go out there, sell your product, do the necessary customer supports (do demo, train users, troubleshoot, etc) and stop the hype because big companies like IBM and VMWare can sell their product with ease. I think the right attitude is to start small, build the reputation and make progress.
