Splunk, which provides software for machine-generated big data analysis, has announced Splunk Enterprise 6.2, Splunk Mint, and Splunk Hunk 6.2.
Splunk Enterprise is a platform for real-time operational intelligence; Splunk Mint extends operational intelligence data to mobile applications, while Splunk Hunk supports data processes in external Hadoop databases with a Splunk interface.
“What we are doing with this release is fundamentally broadening the number of users that can do advanced analytics,” stated Shay Mowlem, VP, product marketing at Splunk. A major point for this release is to give customers greater ROI by simplifying the process of analyzing machine-generated big data and allowing more users within a company to perform these analyses. The two areas that Splunk Enterprise 6.2 makes simpler for users are the gathering and analyzing aspects of the process. When gathering data, version 6.2 now contains a new intuitive wizard. This makes it easier to onboard any machine data. New interfaces guide users through previewing, loading, and preparation of machine data for downstream analysis.
New Features for Advanced Analytics
To perform the more advanced analytics, Splunk has introduced three features to assist the users: Instant Pivot, Event Pattern Detection, and Pre-Built Panels. Instant Pivot allows anyone to pivot directly from any search, enabling analysis and rapid creation of dashboards without knowledge of Splunk Search Processing Language. Event Pattern Detection assists users by automatically detecting meaningful patterns within data and presenting them to the user. Prebuilt Panels enable faster dashboard creation by the ability to create, package, and share reusable dashboard building blocks.
Splunk Hunk
Splunk Hunk is similar to Splunk Enterprise in presenting the same user experience, but with a different back end. Hunk is for data at rest, Hadoop, and NoSQL stores. Hunk is a fully featured product which allows a user to point a Hunk search at Hadoop and issue queries the same way one would with Splunk Enterprise. The key new features in version 6.2 are Hunk Sandbox, Data Explore, and new back-end integrations.
“Sandbox is an easy to download trial so that you don’t have to have a Hadoop cluster to experience Hunk,” explained Clint Sharp, director of product management, big data & operational intelligence at Splunk. Data Explore allows for users to explore and prepare their data which is at rest for use in Hunk. Hunk has also released more back end integration with MongoDB and Swirl. This allows for more platforms than just Hadoop to view data with Hunk. Hunk also has a major integration with Amazon. This allows for users that have data stored in S3 or MapReduce to be able to query that data through the simple Hunk interface. This service will be able to be paid for by the hour, thus allowing the customer the best bang for their buck.
Splunk Mint
With the continual advances in technology, mobile apps have gained more significance for companies as revenue generators. In 2013 Splunk acquired Bugsense, an analytics solution for machine data generated by mobile devices. Splunk Mint Enterprise and Mint Express are the first products to come out for the mobile app market since the acquisition of Bugsense. “By embedding a very small portion of code into a mobile app, it allows the mobile app to report back on availability issues, crashes, performance, usage, and specific transactions that developers are interested in,” explained Bill Emmett, director, solutions marketing, at Splunk concerning Mint Express. These points provide a whole new set of optics with which developers and companies can evaluate the performances of their mobile apps.
Splunk Mint Enterprise will combine the mobile application data from Express along with data from Splunk Enterprise or Splunk Cloud. This will allow for a deeper insight into the data and to compare mobile app performance and usage with similar platforms.
For more information, go to www.splunk.com.
Splunk Enterprise 6.2 will be generally available as software for on premises, cloud or hybrid deployments, and as a cloud service through Splunk Cloud on Tuesday, October 28.