Paving the way to a successful big data implementation requires a combination of good leadership, sustainable investment, prepared team, and most importantly, vision. This paper studies the use cases of revolutionary Big Data technologies, primarily focusing on Hadoop, in large multi- national corporations. Building on the results of this study, the paper examines the reasons for implementation as well as non-implementation of Hadoop and other Big Data technologies in organizations. Drawing lessons learnt from the successes and failures of real-world implementations, the paper concludes with recommendations for its audience.