Business Intelligence and Analytics Articles
The future of business intelligence is coming. The comment is rhetorical, but in many ways it is true. For the last few years the conversation has surrounded Web 2.0 or even BI 2.0. The concept has brought changes to the way that we look at information and the methods that we use to exchange information. BI 2.0 has brought us a plethora of new functionality that provides proactive support to organizations and a more interactive manner of sharing information. So where is this going, and how will today's technology support our needs as 2010 arrives, and with it a new decade?
Posted March 04, 2010
After the misery that was 2009, most of the SQL Server users I talk to are happy that 2010 started in languid fashion. Not that there isn't a lot of work to do; on the contrary, there's more work than ever. However, the long hours and multiple projects of 2009, compounded by freezes in all levels of spending, raised the general stress level to unhealthy heights. With the new year, stress levels dropped significantly, and many IT leaders see signs of improving prospects. What does that bode for 2010? I have a couple of predictions, though I doubt they'll surprise many people.
Posted March 04, 2010
Faced with growing data volumes and limited budgets, companies, educational institutions, and government agencies are increasingly relying on IT to help them gain a competitive edge and better serve their customers and constituents. DBTA recently asked key MultiValue vendors to explain their strategies for enabling data integration from different repositories and for supporting business intelligence and analytics that provide meaningful insight for customers.
Posted March 04, 2010
IBM has announced an enhanced strategy to help clients maximize benefits of virtualization with integrated service management by focusing on four key priorities: consolidation, management, automation and optimized delivery.
Posted March 03, 2010
Confio Software yesterday announced availability of Ignite 8, a major expansion of its database performance solution. Ignite 8 expands the Ignite for SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and Sybase products to include comprehensive performance monitoring in combination with the response-time analysis for which Ignite has been known.
Posted March 03, 2010
ParAccel, Inc., provider of the ParAccel Analytic Database, has announced the ParAccel Analytic Appliance (PAA), a packaged software appliance intended for simple installation and configuration on commodity hardware by customers, partners or ParAccel. With this introduction, ParAccel also announced it is teaming with Fusion-io, a provider of enterprise solid-state storage technology and high performance I/O solutions, to deliver a high-performance option for PAA. The strategic partnership between ParAccel and Fusion-io creates what the companies describe as the first flash-powered columnar analytic appliance.
Posted March 02, 2010
Sybase, Inc. recently reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2009. "2009 was obviously a great year of major accomplishment for Sybase," stated John Chen, chairman, CEO and president, during the Q4 earnings call. "We are very pleased that we delivered consistent financial performance throughout the year," which culminated in "the best quarter of the company history in Q4 and a third consecutive year of record revenue, earnings, as well as cash flow." For the full year, he noted, revenue came in at $1.17 billion, the highest ever, and above the company's outlook as it entered into 2009, 12 months ago.
Posted February 25, 2010
Sybase has announced that its Sybase IQ column-based analytics server, in collaboration with solutions from HP and Red Hat, achieved the top data warehousing benchmark result among currently published non-clustered Linux and x86 systems in the TPC-H benchmark at the 1 TB scale factor.
Posted February 25, 2010
Rocket Software is planning a complimentary webcast series focused on the latest release of RocketU2 SystemBuilder Extensible Architecture (SB/XA). SB/XA is a Rapid Application Development (RAD) and deployment environment delivering up-to-the-minute interface design and portable reporting capabilities. Existing SB+ applications can automatically convert without requiring changes to the underlying code.
Posted February 24, 2010
Vertica announced today a new release of the Vertica Analytic Database, incorporating new features designed to increase performance and automate provisioning of computing resources. Vertica 4.0 is the latest version of the company's MPP columnar database, designed for large queries across large amounts of data.
Posted February 23, 2010
To allow companies to simplify development and management of highly advanced interactive analytic applications that process extremely large data volumes, Aster Data has announced Aster Data nCluster 4.5. With the volume of data in enterprises doubling every 18 months, rich and extremely fast analysis on tens and hundreds of terabytes to petabytes of data has become a necessity. Aster Data's previous releases made "big data" analytics possible by allowing analytic applications to run inside Aster Data's massively parallel database. Now, Jon Bock, director of product marketing for Aster Data, tells 5 minute Briefing, "We are taking the next step in that we are putting together an environment and toolset to make it significantly easier to develop those applications, to test them, and then to manage them."
Posted February 23, 2010
Calpont Corp, a provider of analytic database solutions, announced it is shipping a data warehouse solution based on open source technology. The product will be available as a commercially supported solution, as well as community download. InfiniDB Enterprise 1.0 and Community Editions are MySQL-based data warehouse databases targeted at users requiring cost-effective analytic database for BI and reporting applications. "The market for our product is going to be data warehousing for the masses, if you will," John Weber, vice president of marketing for Calpont, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "If you're after a solid data warehouse alternative at a significantly reduced price, then you should consider us."
Posted February 17, 2010
Informatica Corporation, a provider of data integration software, has announced the "beta version" of the Informatica Marketplace for a community of buyers and sellers to share and leverage data integration solutions. Building upon the company's community of more than 52,000 developers on TechNet (Informatica Technology Network) and over 400 partners, the Informatica Marketplace will offer solutions for seven technology categories including: Enterprise Data Integration, Data Quality, B2B Data Exchange, Application Information Lifecycle Management, Complex Event Processing, Cloud Data Integration and Master Data Management.
Posted February 16, 2010
Calpont Corp, a provider of analytic database solutions, announced it is shipping a data warehouse solution based on open source technology. The product will be available as a commercially supported solution, as well as community download.
Posted February 16, 2010
There's no question that databases are the heart of nearly every application running these days. Moreover, the information stored in databases is now being routinely used as a competitive and operational business weapon by all businesses and organizations regardless of size or industry. Whether used internally in business intelligence applications or utilized externally via the exposure of data tools that let customers view and search through vast amounts of data on websites, data is being maximized in many different ways.
Posted February 09, 2010
Rocket Software has announced that a new version of the SystemBuilder Extensible Architecture (SB/XA) Personal Edition is available for customers now using Personal Editions of UniData or UniVerse. This new version incorporates all the features and benefits provided in SB/XA 6.0.1. SB/XA 6.0.1, released in November 2009, is designed to maximize its customers' investments in U2 technology. SB/XA is a Rapid Application Development (RAD) and deployment environment that delivers up-to-the-minute interface design and portable reporting capabilities. Existing SB+ applications can automatically convert without requiring changes to the underlying code.
Posted February 09, 2010
Members of Entrinsik's product development team have been selected to demonstrate their use of the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) in the development of the latest release of Informer Web Reporting at the upcoming Google I/O Developer Conference. This marks the second year in a row the Entrinsik team has been selected to partiipate in the conference. The two-day event will be held on May 19-20 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco and Entrinsik developers will be demonstrating Informer in the Developers Sandbox.
Posted February 09, 2010
Designing a data model that supports the reporting and analytical functions is no different, initially, than any other modeling effort. Understanding the data is crucial. The data architect or modeler needs to feel comfortable with dimensional modeling techniques and needs to obtain a working knowledge of the universe of discourse for the subject-at-hand. A good start in gathering this knowledge begins by reviewing the operational data structures containing the identified source elements. The challenge in designing analytical solutions is found in applying best practices for analytics simply and effectively.
Posted February 09, 2010
Sybase, Inc., has announced that it has finalized an asset purchase agreement with Aleri Inc., a provider of enterprise-class complex event processing (CEP) technology and CEP-based solutions. CEP is an integral part of real-time analytics and with this acquisition, Sybase strengthens its overall analytics platform and leadership position to better meet the needs of enterprises requiring real-time analytics processing. The acquisition is intended to not only improve Sybase's financial services stack but also bring the company into new markets.
Posted February 09, 2010
Talend, a provider of open source data integration software, has announced the availability of an open source master data management (MDM) solution. With the launch, Talend says it is "democratizing" the MDM market with an affordable, open source alternative to cost-prohibitive and disjointed proprietary technologies.
Posted February 09, 2010
IBM has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Initiate Systems, a provider of data integrity software for information sharing among healthcare and government organizations. The announcement of the acquisition "marks a significant expansion of IBM's ability to help clients integrate information from hundreds of sources," Arvind Krishna, general manager of IBM's Information Management Software division, said during a teleconference detailing the acquisition.
Posted February 09, 2010
InetSoft Technology, a company that provides dashboard, reporting, and mashup software, has announced a new release of its flagship business intelligence software application, Style Intelligence. A defining highlight of this release is upgraded data visualization capabilities for geographic charting. Now, business users can enjoy the depth of capabilities found in specialized charting applications as part of an enterprise-class business intelligence solution that also includes interactive dashboards, production reporting, and broad data access.
Posted February 09, 2010
After receiving regulatory approval from the European Commission for its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Inc, Oracle last week announced that it had closed the deal, completing a process begun last spring. While the purchase had been held up by the European Commission's concerns that Oracle's ownership of the MySQL open source database, through the Sun acquisition, would have an adverse effect on competition, in a statement released by the commission, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said, "I am now satisfied that competition and innovation will be preserved on all the markets concerned. Oracle's acquisition of Sun has the potential to revitalize important assets and create new and innovative products."
Posted February 03, 2010
SYSTIME and Oracle yesterday announced availability of an Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA) solution that connects Oracle's Agile Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne.
Posted February 03, 2010
Syncordant, a data integration company, has announced the release of its new enterprise-class product, the Data Integrator. The new product enables a single, real-time, customizable view into multiple heterogeneous databases distributed anywhere in the world.
Posted February 02, 2010
Informatica Corporation, a provider of data integration software, has acquired Siperian, a vendor in the master data management (MDM) infrastructure technology category. Informatica will acquire Siperian, on a fully diluted basis, for approximately $130 million in cash.
Posted February 02, 2010
Netezza Corporation, a provider of data warehouse and analytic appliances, announced it has begin shipping a data warehouse appliance with a compact footprint that can power development groups and data marts or serve as a platform for application appliances.
Posted February 02, 2010
Sybase today announced the availability of Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) 15.5, the newest version of its high-performance, mission-critical enterprise database management system. This latest version of ASE nonetheless provides key new functionality, Terry Orsborn, product marketing manager for Sybase ASE, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "The first is really around what we are calling ‘extreme performance.' This is our new in-memory database capability. Our customers are finding our approach to be very compelling and it is really resonating with their needs for low-latency and high concurrency."
Posted January 27, 2010
Oracle has received regulatory approval from the European Commission for its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Oracle said it expects unconditional approval from China and Russia and intends to close the transaction shortly. In a statement released by the commission, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said, "I am now satisfied that competition and innovation will be preserved on all the markets concerned. Oracle's acquisition of Sun has the potential to revitalize important assets and create new and innovative products."
Posted January 26, 2010
Enteros, Inc., a provider of performance management software, is extending the support of its Load2Test ZeroDev offering to a host of platforms including Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, MySQL, Oracle EBUS Oracle Forms and HTTP/XML.
Posted January 26, 2010
Ingres Corporation, a leading open source database management company, announced today a technology preview program for Ingres VectorWise. VectorWise is a database technology that, according to Ingres, delivers the performance needed to deal with explosive data growth and is the first business software to fully take advantage of advances in modern chip technology.
Posted January 26, 2010
Quest Software has released a RAC edition of the Toad DBA Suite. The Toad DBA Suite for Oracle is a single toolset that gives users the productivity tools they need to become more proactive by assuring maintenance, performance and change. The RAC Edition extends those capabilities by adding Spotlight on RAC, providing a graphical view of performance diagnostics for a better understanding of the user's RAC environment.
Posted January 26, 2010
Kickfire, Inc., a provider of affordable, high performance analytic appliances, has entered into the Partner Network with Rackspace Hosting, a leader in hosting and cloud computing, to deliver affordable, high-performance analytic appliance hosting and managed services. By joining the network, Kickfire can provide its customers with access to Rackspace's fully managed hosting and 24x7 Fanatical Support services. The two companies will also participate in joint sales and marketing programs.
Posted January 26, 2010
HP and Microsoft Corp. announced a three-year agreement to invest $250 million in efforts and product offerings intended to simplify technology environments. The companies plan to deliver new solutions that will be built on a next-generation infrastructure-to-application model; advance cloud computing by speeding application implementation; and encouraging greater IT automation. "Microsoft and HP both have R&D that we're investing in public and private clouds that are related to utilization and management, the applications, the business intelligence, transaction processing," said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, speaking at a joint briefing that announced the partnership
Posted January 25, 2010
IBM reported a decrease in annual revenues between 2008 and 2009, but revenues for the most recent quarter held steady. Overall, the company reports, revenues for 2009 totaled $95.8 billion, a decrease of 8% (5%, adjusting for currency), compared with $103.6 billion in 2008.
Posted January 25, 2010
IBM has announced that the IBM Client for Smart Work is now available in India through business partners. The IBM Client for Smart Work, IBM and Canonical's cloud-and Linux-based desktop package, is designed to help companies do more with less and lower desktop computing costs by up to 50%.
Posted January 20, 2010
IBM clients are benefiting from migrating workloads from distributed servers to virtual Linux servers running on z10 under z/VM because z/VM offers an extensive set of virtualization technologies that enable users to enjoy cost-savings when deploying Linux-based solutions on the mainframe. And as clients move mission critical work to Linux on System z, they need to manage that workload. The IBM Tivoli Service Management Center for System z is a set of integrated solutions that enable System z as a highly reliable hub for efficient management of business and IT services that span the enterprise, bringing service management and process automation to System z.
Posted January 20, 2010
To help organizations improve operational alignment and financial performance, Oracle yesterday announced the integration of Oracle Hyperion Planning and Oracle's Demantra Real-Time Sales and Operations Planning. The new integration is intended to enable CFOs to get a reliable revenue forecast that has been validated against the current operating plan, while on the operations side, supply chain and manufacturing managers can reconcile current operating plans against updated financial targets and budgets.
Posted January 20, 2010
Quest Software has released a RAC edition of the Toad DBA Suite. The Toad DBA Suite for Oracle is a single toolset that gives users the productivity tools they need to become more proactive by assuring maintenance, performance and change. The RAC Edition extends those capabilities by adding Spotlight on RAC, providing a graphical view of performance diagnostics for a better understanding of the user's RAC environment.
Posted January 20, 2010
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has chosen Noetix software to automatically handle the conversions and database re-mappings required with new Oracle applications releases. With support from Noetix Corp., a software provider that automatically generates business intelligence (BI) content from enterprise applications, the SSA had the tools and technology required to meet deadlines and stay ahead of schedule during its recent migration to Oracle Release 12.
Posted January 20, 2010
HP and Microsoft Corp. announced a three-year agreement to invest $250 million in efforts and product offerings intended to simplify technology environments. The companies plan to deliver new solutions that will be built on a next-generation infrastructure-to-application model; advance cloud computing by speeding application implementation; and encouraging greater IT automation.
Posted January 19, 2010
Jaspersoft, a provider of open source business intelligence software, today announced the availability of Jaspersoft 3.7, and also unveiled the new Jaspersoft Enterprise Edition, which offers a complete package of advanced business analytics and reporting functionality.
Posted January 12, 2010
A new IBM global survey of over 32,000 consumers reveals that technology is giving consumers a new source of power — pushing companies to engage them more directly via increased use of personalized promotions and offerings. However, companies need greater analytic tools to better understand the data flowing in from multiple channels.
Posted January 12, 2010
Progress Software Corporation, a provider of enterprise operations software, announced yesterday at its Global Field Operations Conference the acquisition of Savvion Inc., a privately held business enterprise software company based in Santa Clara, Calif., for approximately $49 million, net of cash acquired.
Posted January 12, 2010
CA announced that it has acquired privately-held Oblicore, a provider of service level management (SLM) software for enterprises and service providers. CA says Oblicore supports and strengthens its ability to set, measure and optimize service levels to meet business expectations across enterprise and cloud environments. Oblicore's solutions also extend CA's capabilities in cloud vendor management and assurance of cloud service quality. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Posted January 11, 2010
Progress Software Corporation, a provider of enterprise operations software, announced today at its Global Field Operations Conference the acquisition of Savvion Inc., a privately held business enterprise software company based in Santa Clara, Calif., for approximately $49 million, net of cash acquired.
Posted January 11, 2010
Ashwood Computer, Inc., which specializes in MultiValue database technology, and Wynne Systems, Inc., a provider of business intelligence software, have formed a partnership to offer Wynne Systems' InfoManager business intelligence software to the MV community. According to the vendors, the new partnership will enable Ashwood to provide a high quality software as a service (SaaS) BI product to the MultiValue community while leveraging Ashwood's strong services capability.
Posted January 11, 2010
Onix Systems Group Inc., a provider of budgeting solutions for the healthcare industry, and Entrinsik, Inc., a provider of operational reporting and analysis solutions, have formed a partnership to integrate Informer Web Reporting into the Onix Budget System.
Posted January 11, 2010
Revelation Software is currently working on OpenInsight for TigerLogic D3. "Just as we have OpenInsight for U2, we will have OpenInsight for D3. Eventually, we hope that OpenInsight becomes a front-end graphical development to the D3 environnment," explains Robert Catalano, director of sales for Revelation. The new product came about after Mike Ruane, Revelation's president and CEO, attended TigerLogic's first user conference in many years in early November. "Many of their users are still using green screen technology or if they are doing it with a graphical front end, it is something like Java, where the skill set just isn't what they have. With the addition of OpenInsight as a front end to D3, they gain the ability to use the same skill set that they have right now, and they get to create a graphical front end to the database that they already have."
Posted January 11, 2010