To help satisfy its customers' need for reports providing information and insights, F.W. Davison & Company has embedded Entrinsik Informer's agile BI capabilities into its platform and also developed more than 1,200 core report templates, writes Sharon Shelton, Entrinsik's vice president of marketing, in a recent blog post. F.W. Davison is a provider of high-performance software solutions for professional employer organizations, and sells its software to human resources outsourcing vendors, some of which have hundreds of thousands of small business clients.

Splunk, a provider of real-time operational intelligence software is offering new software development kits (SDKs) for Java and Python to make it easier for application developers to customize Splunk Enterprise, enabling real-time big data insights across the organization. Splunk previously released the GA version of the Splunk SDK for JavaScript for Splunk Enterprise 5, and a Splunk SDK for PHP is in public preview. "It is the idea of enabling the entire organization with the insights, the machine data, the big data insights that IT traditionally has gotten out of Splunk - and bringing those same insights to marketing, to sales, to customer service, and other divisions and other organizations to break the stovepipe of traditional enterprise. We feel that developers and the developer platform is the key to doing that," Jon Rooney, director of developer marketing at Splunk, tells 5 Minute Briefing.

Oracle has agreed to acquire Eloqua, Inc, a provider of cloud-based marketing automation and revenue performance management software for $23.50 per share or approximately $871 million, net of Eloqua's cash. "Eloqua's leading marketing automation cloud will become the centerpiece of the Oracle Marketing Cloud and is an important addition to the Oracle Customer Experience offering, which includes the Oracle Sales Cloud, Oracle Commerce Cloud, Oracle Service Cloud, Oracle Content Cloud and Oracle Social Cloud," said Thomas Kurian, executive vice president, Oracle Development. The board of directors of Eloqua has unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the first half of 2013, subject to Eloqua stockholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Progress Software, a provider of software for connecting business applications to data and services, has released DataDirect Connect and DataDirect Connect XE for ODBC 7.1. The releases provide fast, reliable, secure and scalable connectivity for Apache Hive, as well as expanded support for cloud databases including Microsoft SQL Azure. DataDirect Connect and DataDirect Connect XE for ODBC 7.1 also offer new features for IBM DB2 10.1, IBM DB2 pureScale 9.8, Teradata 14, and Microsoft SQL Server 2012.

MicroStrategy Inc., a business intelligence software vendor, has certified its integration with the Amazon Redshift data warehouse service, a cloud-based service designed to deliver high performance analytics for data warehouse and big data applications. "A big part of the value we perceive with Redshift is that it takes advantage of the cloud to really deliver a very impressive price-performance ratio that is compelling for a lot of different use cases," Kevin Spurway, MicroStrategy's vice president of cloud and strategic marketing, tells DBTA. MicroStrategy is one of the first vendors to certify integration with Amazon Redshift.

Opportunities abound for organizations that are able to gain insight into customers, sales, markets, and processes, by analyzing data culled from a myriad of sources across the enterprise. This rich information can enable executives, managers, and professionals to answer questions never possible before. As a result, for the companies that are able to provide business decision makers with quick and efficient access to BI or analytic data from which they can create their own interfaces and reports, competitive advantage can be realized.

Attunity Ltd., a provider of information availability software solutions, has officially launched Attunity CloudBeam, a fully-managed data transfer SaaS platform for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3). With its beta completed, the high-performance data transfer solution was unveiled and demonstrated live at the AWS re: Invent Customer and Partner Conference from in Las Vegas, NV. "This is aimed at folks today that are using AWS or will be using AWS for all kinds of use cases where data is core to their strategy," Matt Benati, vice president of Global Marketing at Attunity, tells DBTA. "All these use cases demand the movement of data and it really has to be a frictionless movement of data at scale. That is what Attunity does best."

New releases of the Oracle Big Data Appliance and Oracle Big Data Connectors are now available. Oracle Big Data Appliance X3-2 is an engineered system of hardware and software that has been upgraded to include Intel's new processors and the latest release (4.1) of Cloudera's Distribution including Apache Hadoop (CDH) and Cloudera Manager, as well as the new Oracle Enterprise Manager plug-in for Big Data Appliance.

SAP announced the general availability of SAP Predictive Analysis software, which is intended to help organizations gain a competitive edge by uncovering and predicting trends in their business. SAP Predictive Analysis can be deployed stand-alone or with other SAP software, including the SAP HANA platform.

To help satisfy its customers' need for reports providing information and insights, F.W. Davison & Company has embedded Entrinsik Informer's agile BI capabilities into its platform and also developed more than 1,200 core report templates, writes Sharon Shelton, Entrinsik's vice president of marketing, in a recent blog post. F.W. Davison is a provider of high-performance software solutions for professional employer organizations, and sells its software to human resources outsourcing vendors, some of which have hundreds of thousands of small business clients.

New releases of the Oracle Big Data Appliance and Oracle Big Data Connectors are now available. Oracle Big Data Appliance X3-2 is an engineered system of hardware and software that has been upgraded to include Intel's new processors and the latest release (4.1) of Cloudera's Distribution including Apache Hadoop (CDH) and Cloudera Manager, as well as the new Oracle Enterprise Manager plug-in for Big Data Appliance.

The University of Minnesota, a top research institution comprised of five campuses, 65,000 students and 25,000 employees, has made systematic changes and improved database administration efficiency with Oracle Exadata Database Machine. By hosting its IT environment on two Oracle Exadata Database Machine half racks, the university consolidated more than 200 Oracle database instances into fewer than 20, enabling it to reduce data center floor space and total cost of ownership.

At OpenWorld, Oracle's annual conference for customers and partners, John Matelski, president of the IOUG, and CIO for Dekalb County, Georgia, gave his perspective on the key takeaways from this year's event. Matelski also described the user group's efforts to help the community understand the value of Oracle's engineered systems and deal with the broad implications of big data, and how the IOUG is supporting Oracle DBAs in their evolving roles.

Progress Software, a provider of software for connecting business applications to data and services, has released DataDirect Connect and DataDirect Connect XE for ODBC 7.1. The releases provide fast, reliable, secure and scalable connectivity for Apache Hive, as well as expanded support for cloud databases including Microsoft SQL Azure. DataDirect Connect and DataDirect Connect XE for ODBC 7.1 also offer new features for IBM DB2 10.1, IBM DB2 pureScale 9.8, Teradata 14, and Microsoft SQL Server 2012.

MicroStrategy Inc., a business intelligence software vendor, has certified its integration with the Amazon Redshift data warehouse service, a cloud-based service designed to deliver high performance analytics for data warehouse and big data applications. "A big part of the value we perceive with Redshift is that it takes advantage of the cloud to really deliver a very impressive price-performance ratio that is compelling for a lot of different use cases," Kevin Spurway, MicroStrategy's vice president of cloud and strategic marketing, tells DBTA. MicroStrategy is one of the first vendors to certify integration with Amazon Redshift.

Yellowfin, a business intelligence vendor, has released Storyboard, a new presentation and collaboration platform for BI that offers a fully integrated and interactive presentation module for BI content. Storyboard's user interface allows BI insights to be intuitively incorporated into businesses' decision-making process and empowers business users to collaborate and benefit from BI.

HP announced a range of new enhancements to its Converged Storage portfolio, intended to address storage management issues within virtualized, cloud and big data archive environments. The refresh of the company's storage portfolio includes new HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage, HP StoreAll Storage, and HP StoreOnce Backup product offerings. With the understanding that the storage sprawl at many organizations is unsustainable, the goal of the updated HP storage portfolio is to simplify the overall experience within customer environments, Craig Nunes, vice president of worldwide marketing, HP Storage, tells 5 Minute Briefing.

While no one can dispute the importance of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to organizational performance and competitiveness, executives in charge of these systems are under intense pressure to stay within or trim budgets. Close to half of the executives in a new survey say they have held off on new upgrades for at least a few years. In the meantime, at least one out of four enterprises either are scaling back or have had to scale back their recent ERP projects due to budget constraints.

Kore Technologies has announced KommerceServer Mobile Edition, providing the capabilities of KommerceServer webStoreFront and webPortal in a compact mobile package. The new mobile edition is intended to be a complement to Kore customers' corporate websites. The mobile edition enables end users to browse a company web catalog, make online purchases, and access their account histories using a streamlined interface designed for the requirements and workflow of the mobile user.

Actian Corporation and Versant Corporation, both real-time information management software providers, have announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement through which Actian will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Versant for $13 per share in cash for a purchase price of approximately $37 million. Versant's board of directors unanimously approved the Actian acquisition agreement.

Data keeps growing, and along with it, opportunities for unprecedented insights into customers, sales, markets, and processes. For companies that can offer business decision-makers rapid and easy access to business intelligence (BI) and analytic data from which they can assemble their own interfaces and reports, this means competitive advantage. However, today's BI systems still present obstacles to realizing this vision. Learn about the key steps to achieving self-service BI and analytics at your organization in this on-demand DBTA webcast.

Attunity Ltd., a provider of information availability software solutions, has officially launched Attunity CloudBeam, a fully-managed data transfer SaaS platform for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3). With its beta completed, the high-performance data transfer solution was unveiled and demonstrated live at the AWS re: Invent Customer and Partner Conference from in Las Vegas, NV. "This is aimed at folks today that are using AWS or will be using AWS for all kinds of use cases where data is core to their strategy," Matt Benati, vice president of Global Marketing at Attunity, tells DBTA. "All these use cases demand the movement of data and it really has to be a frictionless movement of data at scale. That is what Attunity does best."

At SAPPHIRE NOW + SAP TechEd co-located in Madrid earlier this month, SAP announced new solutions leveraging the SAP HANA platform. The new solutions aim to enable real-time planning, reporting and analysis on large-scale volumes of data, new sense-and-respond scenarios and personalized interactions with consumers.

Data keeps growing, and along with it, opportunities for unprecedented insights into customers, sales, markets, and processes. For companies that can offer business decision-makers rapid and easy access to business intelligence (BI) and analytic data from which they can assemble their own interfaces and reports, this means competitive advantage. However, today's BI systems still present obstacles to realizing this vision. Learn about the key steps to achieving self-service BI and analytics at your organization in this special Thursday, November 29th webcast at 11 am PT/ 2 pm ET.

Kore Technologies has announced KommerceServer Mobile Edition, providing the capabilities of KommerceServer webStoreFront and webPortal in a compact mobile package. The new mobile edition is intended to be a complement to Kore customers' corporate websites. The mobile edition enables end users to browse a company web catalog, make online purchases, and access their account histories using a streamlined interface designed for the requirements and workflow of the mobile user.

Big data is here, offering both vast opportunities — as well as vexing challenges — for every organization it touches. For a number of years, it has been understood that to be of value, information needs to be readily available, as close to real time as possible, to users in any location. Now, with the onset of "big data," the task gets more daunting. "These are all increasing the demands on both transactional and analytics data systems," says Bernie Spang, director of database software and systems for IBM.

In-memory technology provider Terracotta, Inc. has announced that javax.cache, a caching standard for Java applications, has entered Draft Review Stage under the Java Community Process. It provides a standard approach for how Java applications temporarily cache data, an essential technology for in-memory solutions and a critical factor in achieving high performance and scalability of big data.

Business analytics provider Birst Inc. has released the second version of Birst Mobile for the iPad, a native iOS application that offers easy access to reports and charts and enhanced business intelligence dashboards. Taking full advantage of Apple's gesture-based user interface, Birst Mobile provides information management, reporting, ad hoc analysis and dashboard displays via the iPad.

Jeff West, president of Quest International Users Group, joined by Jonathan Vaughn, Quest's executive director, talked with DBTA at Oracle OpenWorld about what's ahead for 2013. The group has launched smaller, product-concentrated events to support JD Edwards and PeopleSoft users' specific areas of interest, and expanded its range of online offerings for users who may not be able take advantage of in-person conferences. Plans are underway to help members learn about PeopleSoft 9.2 coming in March and to prepare for the looming end of support for JD Edwards World. As always, says West, Quest continues to help get information to members from Oracle and their peers. "It is always about return on investment and aligning IT with the business. That is always on the top of people's minds."