Business Intelligence and Analytics Articles
In "Big Data at Work," Tom Davenport explains to readers why big data is important to them and their organizations, what technology they actually need to manage it, and where to start capitalizing on its potential. Here, the author shares an excerpt from his recent book.
Posted July 23, 2014
Kore Technologies has released a new version of Kourier Integrator, which continues to strengthen Kourier's support for external non-U2 data sources, and provides clients with more options and flexibility when designing ODBC-type exports to extract and transform data.
Posted July 23, 2014
Entrinsik has revamped its website to be easier to use and navigate, with the help of technology partner, Big Bite Creative. In addition, Entrinsik has introduced an interactive Informer Dashboard into the site at www2.entrinsik.com/InformerSugarDashboard, enabling visitors to interact with and get a feel for how dashboards work. Informer Dashboards allow users to see the big picture view of their data in just a few clicks, performing ad hoc data analysis with easy-to-use, interactive visualizations.
Posted July 23, 2014
Presort First Class is a full-service mail provider, offering a complete turnkey operation with the ability to import customers' data into its own systems, print and fold their documents, insert them into envelopes, and then seal and meter the mail before submitting it in bulk to the U.S. Postal Service. A critical aspect of growing the business is staying current with new technology. To stay agile, the company relies on Revelation Software's OpenInsight 9.4, and is also eyeing new capabilities that are expected to become available in the upcoming release of OpenInsight 10.0, particularly the new Couchbase connector.
Posted July 23, 2014
Helping companies get more from big, unstructured data, Actian has unveiled the Actian Analytics Platform - Hadoop SQL Edition. In addition, as a result of a partnership with Logi Analytics, the Actian Analytics Platform combines with Logi Info to offer customers a comprehensive analytics platform to connect, visualize, analyze and act on big data.
Posted July 22, 2014
Addressing the market for lower raw capacity all-flash offerings, Violin Memory, a provider of all-flash storage arrays, has added four new Windows Flash Array (WFA) configurations, and a flexible pricing model that enables customers to align storage investment with capacity as it is consumed.
Posted July 22, 2014
IBM announced second-quarter 2014 net income of $4.1 billion, compared with $3.2 billion in the second quarter of 2013, an increase of 28%. Total revenues for the second quarter of 2014 of $24.4 billion were down 2% from the second quarter 2013.
Posted July 21, 2014
To make it easier for organizations to select MicroStrategy for all their business analytics and mobile application needs, MicroStrategy, a provider of enterprise software platforms, has introduced a new packaging structure that reduces its 21 discreet offerings into four simple packages.
Posted July 21, 2014
The industry hype would have you believe that the key word in the phrase "big data" is big, a reference to datasets so large and complex that they cannot be managed within the confines of traditional IT systems and that the many opportunities for operational improvement that come from better analysis of data and information are reserved for those in the enterprise. Understandable, but completely wrong.
Posted July 16, 2014
Considered a landmark partnership by industry observers, the new joint effort by IBM and Apple, to bring IBM MobileFirst for iOS Solutions to market is actually just one more step in a long line of innovative and sometimes surprising initiatives from IBM, the venerable IT powerhouse. Big Blue's extensive line of businesses range from mainframes to cloud software to ground-breaking partnerships in the open source space, including its commitment to Linux and the opening of the technology surrounding its Power Architecture offerings
Posted July 16, 2014
How do you catch the next big wave - not the wave everyone's already riding, but the one on the horizon? When it comes to big data, the next big wave is in-memory technologies, which accelerate data processing for faster, more accurate decisions.
Posted July 15, 2014
InfiniDB has released version 4.6 of its fourth generation columnar data platform, which includes enhanced support for large-scale join operations and support for additional data load commands to speed the extraction, transformation, and load (ETL) process. The company also introduced a new 60-day enterprise trial that includes InfiniDB Enterprise Manager, a management console to simplify the administration of InfiniDB, and provide real-time visibility into the performance and availability of users' InfiniDB servers.
Posted July 15, 2014
Oracle today introduced Oracle Big Data SQL, which allows customers to run one SQL query across Hadoop, NoSQL, and Oracle Database, minimizing data movement while overcoming data silos. According to Oracle the new solution helps customers gain a competitive advantage by making it easier to uncover insights faster, and allows them to leverage existing SQL skills while protecting data security and enforcing governance. Oracle Big Data SQL runs on Oracle Big Data Appliance and can work in conjunction with Oracle Exadata Database Machine.
Posted July 15, 2014
Databricks and SAP have collaborated on a Databricks-certified Apache Spark distribution offering for the SAP HANA platform. This production-ready distribution offering is the first result of a new partnership between Databricks and SAP.
Posted July 15, 2014
To meet emerging challenges in the enterprise fueled by the expansion of cloud, mobile and IoT, Oracle has introduced SOA Suite 12c with simplified integration capabilities. "We are seeing a lot of demand for any-to-any integration," said Amit Zavery, group vice president, Fusion Middleware, Oracle. "We have more than 5,000 customers using SOA Suite today," he said, adding that this release moves the needle even further and allows Oracle to differentiate against the competition more starkly. "The cloud and mobile capabilities will be very useful for customers looking for one, out-of-the-box solution for any kind of integration."
Posted July 09, 2014
As part of a collaboration to make Apache Hadoop and Spark accessible for everyday analysts, Alteryx and Databricks will become the primary committers to SparkR, a subset of the overall Apache Spark framework. In addition, Alteryx and Databricks are forming a technology and go-to-market partnership to accelerate the adoption of SparkR and SparkSQL, in order to help analysts get greater value from Spark as the leading open source in-memory engine.
Posted July 08, 2014
Data Lake Hadoop, a new bundle from Pivotal and EMC, combines scale-out enterprise storage and big data and analytics to offer a production-grade HDFS solution. The bundle consists of pre-configured EMC Isilon X410 nodes, HAWQ subscriptions and Pivotal HD, Pivotal's enterprise version of Apache Hadoop.
Posted July 08, 2014
Revolution Analytics is providing certification testing for its flagship product, Revolution R Enterprise, with independent proctoring by Kryterion. Citing an anticipated shortage of individuals with advanced analytics expertise, Revolution Analytics says the certification is designed to demonstrate a person's proficiency in managing, mining and analyzing big data sets within the Revolution R Enterprise environment.
Posted July 08, 2014
MicroStrategy's full feature set, previously split into 21 discrete offerings, has been reduced to four packages that the company says will allow developers, analysts, power users. MicroStrategy also announced that it is extending free upgrades for existing clients to the premium capabilities included in the new product packaging, offering greater value to clients and new users to take advantage of the comprehensive MicroStrategy platform with simplified value-based pricing.
Posted July 08, 2014
Commitment to the creation of a business intelligence environment means embracing a well-measured and thoughtful allocation of resources with the right skills, the right tools, the right scope, and the right timelines
Posted July 03, 2014
Rocket Software has introduced Rocket CorVu NG 3.0, a BI and analytics solution for Rocket UniVerse and Rocket UniData. A highlight of the new release is the CorVu U2 Native Interface that allows the rapid assembly of queries through an intuitive U2-centric UI. The native access to U2 dictionary items enables developers to browse and select from existing field definitions, leverage existing processes and expressions defined in field definitions, and consume existing System Builder or Smart Queries inside CorVu.
Posted July 03, 2014
Entrinsik Informer, a web-based reporting business intelligence solution that integrates real-time data from multiple sources without requiring an ETL (Extract, Transfer, Load) process, has received top rankings on Trust Radius, according to the company.
Posted July 03, 2014
RainStor has added an archive application for Hadoop 2.0 with its latest release, RainStor 6. Building on RainStor's existing interactive SQL-on-Hadoop stack, the new archive application features XQuery for hierarchical data and documents, and extends analytics support to SQL 2003.
Posted June 26, 2014
With the introduction of Oracle Database In-Memory, Oracle PartnerNetwork's Oracle Database Ready certification now also includes Oracle Database In-Memory.
Posted June 25, 2014
Co-engineered with Oracle software, Oracle's new workload-specific servers, the Sun Server X4-4 and Sun Server X4-8, are the first to include elastic computing features, maximizing performance by adapting to different demands in real time. The Sun Server X4-4 is designed specifically for business intelligence and analytics and server consolidation, while the Sun Server X4-8 is designed for the Oracle Database In-Memory option and scale-up applications.
Posted June 25, 2014
Applying automated analytics to a wide variety of IT and business metrics is rapidly becoming "the next big thing." When considering whether to give the data center the "Moneyball" treatment in 2014, there are two main architectural considerations that need to be evaluated.
Posted June 25, 2014
Fusion ION Accelerator version 2.3 is now certified by SAP as an enterprise storage solution for the SAP HANA platform. The new certification enables Fusion-io to participate in SAP's program for SAP HANA-tailored data center integration using its certified solution.
Posted June 25, 2014
Pentaho has announced version 5.1 of its business analytics and data integration platform. The new release enables code-free analytics directly on the NoSQL database MongoDB, simplifies the data preparation process for data scientists, and offers full support for MapReduce 2.0 (YARN).
Posted June 24, 2014
GigaSpaces Technologies, a provider of in-memory computing and cloud orchestration technologies, and SanDisk Corp., a provider of flash storage solutions, have formed a partnership resulting in a new solution called GigaSpaces' XAP MemoryXtend.
Posted June 24, 2014
Splunk, aprovider of a software platform for real-time operational intelligence, and Syncsort, a provider of big data software, have formed a technical alliance aimed at unlocking insights from machine data generated by mainframe systems, a critical and major source of corporate data. The companies say they have joint customers, including top telcos, retailers, insurance, healthcare and financial organizations, who rely heavily on mainframes for critical business operations, but have had difficulty leveraging mainframe data for business insights.
Posted June 24, 2014
SiSense, a provider of big data analytics for business users, has added $30 million in new financing, which it plans to use to continue expanding its global footprint. Current customers include Target, eBay, ESPN, Samsung and Wix. The new financing was led by venture capital firm DFJ Growth, with participation from existing investors Battery Ventures, Genesis Partners and Opus Capital.
Posted June 17, 2014
Big data analytics hold great promise, but the present methods of mining and managing big data are still evolving and pose serious security and privacy challenges. Confronting these challenges is essential if the potential of big data is to be fully exploited.
Posted June 17, 2014
At an event at Oracle's headquarters, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison showcased the new Oracle Database In-Memory, an additional option to the Oracle Database 12c. Oracle Database In-Memory is scheduled for release in July, said Ellison. The Oracle Database In-Memory is the underpinning of finally making the real-time enterprise a reality, explained Tim Shetler, Oracle vice president of product management, in an interview before the launch event in which he highlighted the key elements of the release. "We have built this in-memory option to be completely transparent to the huge ecosystem of Oracle Database customers and applications that are already written for the Oracle Database."
Posted June 11, 2014
With the vast amounts of data that organizations deal with, finding the right BI tools can be an arduous task. There are numerous solutions that can provide self-service BI, however, organizations are finding that one tool does not usually meet the needs of their various types of users. Therefore, finding the right BI platform that can support suites of tools is becoming the norm.
Posted June 11, 2014
Big data analytics is a complex field, but if you understand the basic concepts—such as the difference between supervised and unsupervised learning—you are sure to be ahead of the person who wants to talk data science at your next cocktail party!
Posted June 11, 2014
How does one tame the data beast to start making tangible progress toward an organization's business intelligence goals? For any progress to occur on the business intelligence-side, tasks, projects and goals need to be fashioned into small steps along a much larger path.
Posted June 11, 2014
AAAA World, a distributor and retailer of consumer electronics and home appliances, is now using Entrinsik Informer which enables users to generate and customize their own reports without IT support.
Posted June 11, 2014
Kore Technologies will be presenting at a number of higher education technology conferences this year. The solutions to problems that higher ed tech professionals are seeking are ones that Kore has solved in other industries, said Keith Lambert, Kore Technologies' vice president of marketing and business development. "Yes, the software applications are different but nonetheless it's the same root issue."
Posted June 11, 2014
The latest release of Fusion-io's Atomic Series is built on foundational technology achievements with the latest third-generation Fusion-io memory-based architecture. Flash powers applications that demand more performance and less infrastructure. According to Fusion-io, the series is architected for application acceleration through innovative software advancements, providing the ability to deliver higher performance than typical solid-state disks in less space.
Posted June 09, 2014
IBM is supporting the SAP HANA platform, the SAP HANA ONE service and other SAP applications on IBM's SoftLayer solution set. SAP has verified the SoftLayer platform to run SAP applications, including SAP Business Suite software and SAP BusinessObjects solutions.
Posted June 09, 2014
New services have been added to Bluemix, IBM's open cloud platform. New Bluemix services include AppScan, designed to build security by design via rapid testing in multiple environments and shared results, as well as embeddable reporting services to build advanced analytics within an app from the moment it is provisioned - turning volumes of big data into actionable feedback.
Posted June 09, 2014
MarkLogic CEO Gary Bloom and his team brought the MarkLogic World Tour 2014 to Wall Street to showcase customer use cases and explain the key new features coming out in MarkLogic 8. The overarching theme for the new release is ease of use, said Bloom.
Posted June 04, 2014