Business Intelligence and Analytics Articles
Oracle has introduced Oracle Exalogic Elastic Cloud Oracle VM Templates for several Oracle applications. The Oracle applications have been packaged as ready-to-run virtual machines for deployment in Oracle's Exalogic Elastic Cloud environment, explains Adam Hawley, senior director of desktop and server virtualization product management at Oracle. The templates are now available for the Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1.3, Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne 9.1, Oracle's PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.52 and Oracle's Siebel CRM 8.1.1.8 and 8.2.2. These are the first Oracle VM templates built for Oracle Exalogic.
Posted February 13, 2013
Having vast amounts of data at hand doesn't necessarily help executives make better decisions. In fact, without a simple way to access and analyze the astronomical amounts of available information, it is easy to become frozen with indecision, knowing the answers are likely in the data, but unsure how to find them. With so many companies proclaiming to offer salvation from all data issues, one of the most important factors to consider when selecting a solution is ease of use. An intuitive interface based on how people already operate in the real world is the key to adoption and usage throughout an organization.
Posted February 13, 2013
Establishing a data warehousing or business intelligence environment initiates a process that works its way through the operational applications and data sources across an enterprise. This process focuses not only on identifying the important data elements the business lives and breathes, but the process also tries very hard to provide rationality in explaining these elements to business intelligence users.
Posted February 13, 2013
Entrinsik has launched a traveling road show to provide Informer training. The idea for the Informer Power Users Road Show grew out of the success of the ICON Informer user conference and the feedback Entrinsik was receiving about the Informer customer service team's on-site work with individual clients, Sharon Shelton, vice president of marketing at Entrinsik, tells DBTA. "The road shows are really an answer to the question: How do we provide this service for more of our client base - especially those who can't make it to ICON, or don't have the resources to afford implementation and training services on-site. We are trying to get the best information out to customers in a way that is cost-efficient for them and for us," Shelton says.
Posted February 13, 2013
IBM has made enhancements to its PureSystems suite of expert integrated systems. This represents a broadening of the overall portfolio for the PureSystems line in three main categories, Jason Gartner, vice president, PureSystems Product Management at IBM, tells 5 Minute Briefing. The first category is big data, the second is cloud-based offerings, and the third is a broadening of the portfolio to go after different types of customers.
Posted February 12, 2013
SiSense and Microsoft have introduced support for Windows Azure in SiSense Cloud, providing customers with the benefits of SiSense in the cloud in addition to on-premise. The addition of Windows Azure will enable more companies to analyze data in real-time without having to purchase and configure additional hardware and software. The value proposition of the SiSense Cloud offering is threefold, Bruno Aziza, vice president of marketing at SiSense, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted February 12, 2013
Oracle president Mark Hurd and Oracle executive vice president of product development Thomas Kurian recently hosted a conference call to provide an update on Oracle's cloud strategy and recap of product-related developments. Oracle is trying to do two things for customers - simplify their IT and power their innovation, said Hurd.
Posted February 06, 2013
Dell Inc. announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement under which it will be acquired by Michael Dell, Dell's founder, chairman and CEO, in partnership with global technology investment firm Silver Lake. The transaction will be financed through a combination of cash and equity contributed by Michael Dell, cash funded by investment funds affiliated with Silver Lake, cash invested by MSD Capital, L.P., a $2 billion loan from Microsoft, as well as financing from other sources. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the second quarter of Dell's FY2014.
Posted February 05, 2013
Hortonworks, a leading contributor to Apache Hadoop, has released Hortonworks Sandbox, a learning environment and on-ramp for anyone interested in learning, evaluating or using Apache Hadoop in the enterprise. This tool seeks to bridge the gap between people who want to learn Hadoop, and the complexity of setting up a cluster with an integrated environment that provides demos, videos, tutorials.
Posted February 05, 2013
IBM has signed an agreement to acquire the software portfolio of Star Analytics Inc., a privately held business analytics company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Financial terms of the acquisition, which is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2013, were not disclosed. According to IBM, Star Analytics software helps organizations automatically integrate essential information, reporting applications and business intelligence tools across their enterprises, on premise or from cloud computing environments. The software removes typical custom coding for specialized sources that are hard to maintain, and also eliminates manual processes that are cumbersome and time-consuming.
Posted February 01, 2013
Actian Corp. and Pervasive Software Inc. have entered into a definitive merger agreement through which Actian will acquire all of Pervasive's outstanding shares for $9.20 per share. Actian products include Action Apps, Vectorwise, the analytical database, Ingres, an independent mission-critical OLTP database, in addition to the Versant Object Database, which Actian added to its portfolio through another recent merger in which Actian acquired all the outstanding shares of Versant Corporation. According to the company, the deal values Pervasive at $161.9 million and will accelerate Actian's ability to deliver its vision of providing organizations with the capability to take action in real time as their business environment changes.
Posted January 31, 2013
EMC Corporation has updated its appliance-based unified big data analytics offering. The new EMC Greenplum Data Computing Appliance (DCA) Unified Analytics Platform (UAP) Edition expands the system's analytics capabilities and solution flexibility, achieves performance gains in data loading and scanning, and adds integration with EMC's Isilon scale-out NAS storage for enterprise-class data protection and availability. Within a single appliance, the DCA integrates Greenplum Databases for analytics-optimized SQL, Greenplum HD for Hadoop-based processing as well as Greenplum partner business intelligence, ETL, and analytics applications. The appliances have been able to host both a relational database and Hadoop for some time now, Bill Jacobs director of product marketing for EMC Greenplum, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "The significance of this launch is that we tightened that integration up even more. We make those two components directly manageable with a single administrative interface and also tighten up the security. All of that is targeted at giving enterprise customers what they need in order to use Hadoop in very mission-critical applications without having to build it all up in Hadoop themselves."
Posted January 31, 2013
The latest version of the SAP BusinessObjects Mobile app allows users to visualize, explore, collaborate from within the app and share business performance through personalized and simple views in a secure environment designed natively for iPad.
Posted January 30, 2013
SAP announced a new option for SAP Business Suite customers — SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA — providing an integrated family of business applications that captures and analyzes transactional data in real time on a single in-memory platform. With Business Suite on HANA, "SAP has reinvented the software that reinvented businesses," stated Rob Enslin, member of the Global Executive Board and SAP head of sales, as part of his presentation during the company's recent launch event.
Posted January 30, 2013
Software AG has agreed to sell its SAP-service operations in Canada and the USA to itelligence, a full-service provider of IT solutions for the SAP market with approximately 2,700 employees in 21 countries. Its headquarters are in Bielefeld, Germany. The transaction closing is scheduled for January 16 and according to the companies the purchase price will not be disclosed. The transaction includes all of Software AG's SAP product-specific services in Canada and the U.S., which are coordinated from Toronto and Reston, Virginia respectively. In addition, itelligence plans to acquire the majority of around 80 employees as of January 16.
Posted January 30, 2013
Attunity Ltd., a provider of information availability software solutions, has announced the release of Attunity RepliWeb for Enterprise File Replication (EFR) 6.0, which is designed to allow organizations to quickly and easily replicate data files to and from Apache Hadoop. According to Attunity, the ability to move large amounts of data in and out of Hadoop is especially beneficial to industries that need to process big data on a regular basis such as e-commerce, healthcare, infrastructure management and mobile.
Posted January 29, 2013
Today's data warehouse environments are not keeping up with the explosive growth of data volume (or "big data") and the demand for real-time analytics. Fewer than one out of 10 respondents to a new survey say their data warehouse sites can deliver analysis in what they would consider a real-time timeframe. Nearly 75% of respondents believe that in-memory technology is important to enabling their organization to remain competitive in the future. Yet, almost as many also indicate they lack the in-memory skills to deliver even current business requirements. These are among the findings of a new survey of 323 data managers and professionals who are part of the Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG). The survey was underwritten by SAP Corporation and conducted by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc.
Posted January 29, 2013
Web-based business intelligence provider LogiXML has released Logi Info v11, an information platform for embedding analytics directly into business processes, systems and applications. This makes it easier for business people to understand their data and it put information to work directly inside their applications. "Logi Info v11 allows our customers to get their analytics in a more interactive way with better visualizations, interactivity, and great mobile as well," Brian Brinkmann, LogiXML's VP of product management, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted January 29, 2013
Rapid-I, a provider of open source predictive analytics, data mining, and text mining solutions, has released RapidMiner 5.3. This solution features data integration, ETL, data analysis, and reporting in a single application, with a drag and drop visual environment for designing and deploying customized analytical processes. "In our most recent release we have added full integration with our marketplace. People can search and discover new extensions and install them straight from the application without having to go a web browser, download it, and manually install it," Giuseppe Taibi, CEO of Rapid-I, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted January 29, 2013
The explosion of big data has presented many challenges for today's database administrators (DBAs), who are responsible for managing far more data than ever before. And with more programs being developed and tested, more tools are needed to help optimize data and efficiency efforts. Using techniques such as DB2's Multi-Row Fetch (MRF), DBAs are able to cut down on CPU time - and improve application efficiency. MRF was introduced in DB2 version 8 in 2004. Stated simply, it is the ability for DB2 to send multiple rows back to a requesting program at once, rather than one row at a time.
Posted January 29, 2013
Databases are hampered by a reliance on disk-based storage, a technology that has been in place for more than two decades. Even with the addition of memory caches and solid state drives, the model of relying on repeated access to the permanent information storage devices is still a bottleneck in capitalizing on today's "big data," according to a new survey of 323 data managers and professionals who are part of the IOUG. Nearly 75% of respondents believe that in-memory technology is important to enabling their organization to remain competitive in the future. Yet, almost as many also indicate they lack the in-memory skills to deliver even current business requirements. The research results are detailed in a new report, titled "Accelerating Enterprise Insights: 2013 IOUG In-Memory Strategies Survey."
Posted January 24, 2013
The recent explosion of digital data has affected businesses of all sizes and has opened opportunities for companies that adopt machine learning technology - including predictive analytics - to mine intelligence from data assets. Predictive analytics has the potential to transform traditional small to medium businesses (SMBs), which have the same desire to take better advantage of their data assets as larger organizations - but the process with which they can glean strategic value from that data is significantly different.
Posted January 23, 2013
For the 20th year in a row, IBM topped an annual list of U.S. patent recipients. The company received 6,478 patents in 2012 for inventions that will enable advancements in areas including analytics, big data, cyber security, cloud, mobile, social networking and software defined environments, as well as industry solutions for retail, banking, healthcare, and transportation. IBM's motivation extends beyond simply achieving high numbers of patent filings, Graham Mackintosh, program executive for social analytics at IBM, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "We care about the innovation. The patent activity is a byproduct."
Posted January 22, 2013
OpenText, a provider of reporting software, says it is shipping a new interface that extends its enterprise information management reporting capabilities to mainframe-generated content by making it available to users of OpenText Content Server, OpenText eDOCS, and Microsoft SharePoint. "The Report & Output Management interface now allows mainframe output and content to be included as a source within the enterprise," Jason Likins, vice president of report and output at OpenText, tells 5 Minute Briefing. This includes business-centric information captured from mainframes, he says.
Posted January 22, 2013
The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) has announced the associate member organizations participating in the 2013 OAUG Star Partner Program, which connects providers of related products and solutions with Oracle Applications users throughout the year.
Posted January 15, 2013
JackBe Presto has been accredited with the Certificate of Networthiness (CoN) by the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM). To receive this award, JackBe had to meet the U.S. Army's requirements for security, compatibility, supportability, governance and sustainability. All organizations managing information systems on the Army Enterprise Architecture are required to have the CoN, which manages the risks and impacts associated with the fielding of information systems, as well as sustains the health of the Army Enterprise Infrastructure.
Posted January 15, 2013
Enterprise software vendor Attivio, creators of Active Intelligence Engine (AIE), has received $8 million in new growth funding from General Electric Pension Trust, supplementing a $34 million investment led by Oak Investment Partners in October, totaling $71 million investment funds to date. "Our focus going forward is around verticals, and we are going to empower and strengthen each of the verticals that we have ventured out on, including financial services, digital media, government intelligence, and life sciences," Ali Riaz, CEO of Attivio, tells 5 Minute Briefing.
Posted January 15, 2013
Real-time big data vendor SQLstream Inc. has released the newest generation of its streaming big data management platform, SQLstream s-Server 3.0. With improved speed and scalability, the flagship product introduces high performance distributed stream processing, Google BigQuery integration, and enhanced platform manageability and streaming application development.
Posted January 15, 2013
Oracle announced the availability of Oracle Transportation Management 6.3 and Oracle Global Trade Management 6.3, which provide new capabilities including enhanced fleet management, transportation sourcing, transportation business intelligence, transportation planning, rail transportation, workflow and event management, freight payment, billing and claims, document management and customs management.
Posted January 09, 2013
Oracle has enhanced Oracle Retail Category Management, which helps grocers, big box retailers, hardlines and department stores improve sales through a planning process that helps to create assortments, pricing and promotions tailored to specific customer segments. Built on the Oracle Retail Predictive Application Server, this is the latest solution update within the suite of Planning, Optimization, Forecasting and Supply Chain solutions that are based on the flexible and scalable platform.
Posted January 09, 2013
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.
Posted January 09, 2013
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.
Posted January 03, 2013
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.
Posted December 21, 2012
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.
Posted December 19, 2012
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.
Posted December 19, 2012
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."
Posted December 19, 2012
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.
Posted December 19, 2012
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.
Posted December 19, 2012
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.
Posted December 12, 2012
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.
Posted December 12, 2012