Silicon Valley is really Ground Zero for Big Data. Not only is the IBM Big Data development team based in Silicon Valley Labs, but Big Data companies like Cloudera, HortonWorks, MapR, Datameer and many others are all based here.

For developers there a number of key Meetups to be aware of, like http://www.meetup.com/BigDataCloud/ that focuses on Evangelizing & Training around Big Data & Cloud Technologies and with close to 3000 members, the Big Data Silicon Valley Meetup with over 1000 members http://www.meetup.com/Big-Data-Silicon-Valley/, the Silicon Valley Big Data Meetup in San Jose with over 1500 members, the mother of all Big Data Meetups, the  Bay Area Hadoop User Group (HUG) http://www.meetup.com/hadoop/events/74896962/ with close 5400 members and last but not least the Big Data Developers meetup with over 500 members http://www.meetup.com/BigDataDevelopers/ that meet here at the IBM Silicon Valley Innovation Center, with participation from our own Innovation Center team.

Lots of innovation, lots of companies, lots of developers and lots of activity. And an area where IBM Silicon Valley is playing a key role.