May 30, 2014 - Actian Corporation ("Actian") today announced the premiere of a new web series Coffee@Actian with Ray, where technology thought leader and analyst, R "Ray" Wang of Constellation Research, Inc., partners with Actian to spark big data action through conversations with the industry's most prominent change agents and luminaries.

The weekly series will tackle business-critical issues of big data - separating fact from fiction and highlighting the newsmakers and the noisemakers of the big data conversation. Picture today's big thinkers having a chat about actionable ideas in a coffeehouse setting where "big data insights are brewed fresh."

"Every day, we talk to smart people who know that big data can have a massive positive impact on their business, but they are unsure where to begin or how to make big data work effectively for their organization," said Ashish Gupta, Actian chief marketing officer and senior vice president of business development. "We wanted to help those who have the will, but aren't sure yet how to find their way to big data success. By partnering with Ray Wang, who is always at the forefront of the latest technology innovations and adoption trends, we're delivering hard-hitting, highly interactive conversations with big data disruptors to uncover exactly what they did, how they did it, and the impact it had on their business. The bias is toward action. The bedrock principle is to give viewers insights that they can apply in their own environment, starting today."

"What started as buzz about big data is now turning into noise," explained R "Ray" Wang. "This series by Actian and Constellation Research identifies challenges, real-world scenarios and proven blueprints to success to help business decision makers get started with big data initiatives and separate the information they need to know from jargon-poisoned PR they need to ignore. We are moving from data to decisions. The goal is to get to actionable insight. Through conversations with those who are leading the charge to big data success, we identify the gaps and opportunities, and discuss steps organizations should take to move the impact of technology like Hadoop from the basement to the board room."

Companies leveraging big data analytics consistently outperform their peers, in both revenue and profitability. But learning curves and technology adoption rates have been steep.

Unfortunately, until now, the technology needed to unlock big data value has been complex, expensive and therefore, accessible only a privileged few. The need to understand the ever-changing landscape of the industry has never been greater.

Coffee@Actian with Ray will be the premier source for IT professionals and business influencers to fully understand and discover the importance and relevance of the latest industry trends from Hadoop adoption to data integration in the cloud. The series will provide an entertaining and uncomplicated look into the astonishing world of Big Data.