A recent report from Infonetics (News - Alert) Research titled, "Subscriber Data Management Software and Services," ran down some major developments in the field including the overall size of the market and an upcoming forecast. Some excerpts from the report also emerged with the larger report, and those excerpts alone are showing some major new developments already in progress.

Among the report's major highlights included the stunning revelation that the global subscriber data market had increased to $792 million in 2012. Objectively, that's a pretty big number for just about anyone to deal with, but given that that $792 million represents a 45 percent jump over the previous year, that's a pretty big advance.

It wasn't just about the numbers that made this report worth noting, however. Advancements within the field of subscriber data management also drove some noteworthy events. For instance, Oracle's purchase of Tekelec (News - Alert) gives Oracle a stronger position in this growing field thanks to not only a new set of database and analytics technology, but also some new network and IT data sources. Additionally, the user data convergence standard developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is rapidly gaining ground as an industry standard. It's not there yet, but it's rapidly getting there.

What's more, operators are looking for something more specific when it comes to subscriber data management, reportedly: operators want trusted identity providers, able to handle a variety of tasks like authentication, authorization, and transaction functions among a variety of different parties.

Perhaps most notably of all was the insight into just what it was the market wanted from subscriber data management strategies. Those firms that could supply the best in analytics capabilities--like Oracle (News - Alert) could with the acquisition of Tekelec--are the most likely to go to the top of the food chain in this growing market.

Of course, most of this is very much forward-looking. It could be that the bottom will abruptly fall out of the subscriber data management market, or that big data will no longer be as important as some once thought it would be. But the likely track right now seems to be a particular focus on subscriber data management, backed up by big data's increasing value in terms of tracking customer behavior and deriving future trends from same that can be used to help businesses develop along the directions that are most likely to return profit. Considering the sheer number of applications involved in subscriber data management, as well as big data in general, betting against the market to rise in terms of value probably wouldn't be the most prudent of measures.

While only time will truly tell just how far this market can go, subscriber data management may well prove to be one of the next big things in terms of future development.