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Business Intelligence and Analytics

The world of Business Intelligence and Analytics is evolving quickly. Increasingly, the emphasis is on real-time Business Intelligence to enable faster decision making, and on Data Visualization, which enables data patterns to be seen more clearly. Key technologies involved in preparing raw data to be used for Business Intelligence, Reporting and Analytics – including ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load), CDC (Change Data Capture), and Data Deduplication – support a wide range of goals within organizations.



Business Intelligence and Analytics Articles

Attunity Ltd., a provider of real-time data integration and event data capture software, introduced a set of solutions based on a new concept coined ‘Operational Data Replication' (ODR), designed to enable the large market of Oracle customers to replicate data in real-time to and from Oracle databases, at an affordable price point. The solutions, designed to enhance business intelligence (BI), improve business operations and reduce total costs, were presented at last week's Oracle Open World conference.

Posted October 21, 2009

Yesterday marked the beginning of the annual Teradata Partners User Group conference with a flurry of announcements from the enterprise data warehousing leader focused on new product innovations and partner developments. "Information is power, but intelligence is transformative," James Vollmer, president of the Partners steering committee, announced to a buzzing room after stepping out of a custom Teradata-orange muscle car during the opening keynote.

Posted October 20, 2009

Noetix Corp., a software provider that automatically generates business intelligence content from enterprise applications, has completed the acquisition of privately-held business analytics company, Jaros Technologies Corp., for an undisclosed sum.

Posted October 13, 2009

Aster Data, a provider of data analytics and management platforms for "big data" applications, has announced the availability of a new Aster-Hadoop Data Connector, which utilizes Aster's patent-pending SQL-MapReduce capabilities for two-way, high-speed, data transfer between Apache Hadoop and Aster Data's massively parallel data warehouse.

Posted October 13, 2009

MITS, developer of advanced reporting and business intelligence software for the MultiValue database market, has introduced version 7.1 of MITS Discover, the company's OLAP business intelligence system. This latest release includes new capabilities for increased ease of use and enhanced user productivity, as well as new database support.

Posted October 13, 2009

As my regular readers know, I am an avid reader, especially of technology books. And every now and then I review some of the more interesting database-related books in the DBA Corner column.

Posted October 13, 2009

Pentaho Corporation, a commercial open source business intelligence and data integration software vendor, has announced the acquisition of technology assets from LucidEra, a pioneer in software-as-a-service (SaaS) business intelligence. The new technology will be packaged as "Pentaho Analyzer Enterprise Edition" and extends Pentaho's capabilities to enable business users to intuitively analyze information, adding another SaaS-ready product to Pentaho's BI portfolio.

Posted October 07, 2009

Kalido, a provider of information management software for enterprise data governance, announced that the latest version of the Kalido Information Engine which will be generally available by the end of October 2009. The Kalido Information Engine is a business model-driven, best-practice based platform that can automatically feed information to end-users through their business intelligence tools. With the engine, users can quickly model business scenarios, and deliver reliable, consistent and accurate data. It includes such features as workflow, embedded data matching, a full audit trail, role-based security, and more.

Posted October 07, 2009

IBM announced the launch of its New York-based IBM Business Analytics Solution Center, part of a network of global analytics centers addressing the growing demand for the complex capabilities needed to build smarter cities and help clients optimize all manner of business processes and business decisions.

Posted October 05, 2009

Talend, a provider of data integration, ETL, and data quality software, recently announced it has acquired all rights to the master data management (MDM) technology of Amalto Technologies. As a result of this acquisition, Talend says it will be the first company to offer an open source MDM solution, providing organizations with the exact features and benefits found in proprietary MDM solutions, at a fraction of the cost. The MDM technology is a complement to Talend's open source data integration and data quality solutions, and will speed open source MDM time to market.

Posted September 29, 2009

Sybase and HCL Technologies Ltd., a global IT services provider, have formed a strategic alliance to provide customers with real time operational business intelligence. Under this new partnership, HCL will provide business-aligned IT value services around Sybase's high performance and proven data warehouse and analytics platform for improved efficiencies and decision-making across all facets of an enterprise.

Posted September 23, 2009

At the Sybase Techwave Symposium in Washington, D.C., last month, Sybase announced the availability of its data management and analytics servers, including Sybase SQL Anywhere, Sybase IQ, and Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise, for the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) environment. With these products, customers will have the ability to quickly develop and deploy on-demand data systems for mobile, analytics and transactional applications.

Posted September 23, 2009

The world's first OLTP Database Machine was unveiled yesterday by Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, with John Fowler, Sun executive vice president, during a live webcast. "For a long time we have been working with Sun and this is the latest output of that partnership—Oracle Exadata version 2, hardware by Sun and software by Oracle," said Ellison.

Posted September 16, 2009

Quest Software has introduced a new version of Toad for Data Analysts, a multi-platform tool designed for IT and business professionals who need to quickly access, understand and report on data.

Posted September 15, 2009

IBM recently launched IBM Cognos Express, an all-in-one business intelligence and planning solution specifically built and priced for midsized clients. Deployed in just a matter of hours, the new solution offers clients a low-cost and low-risk, integrated approach to planning, analyzing and reporting performance, identifying trends, and ultimately helping them make smarter business decisions.

Posted September 15, 2009

Entrinsik, Inc., a provider of web-based operational reporting and analysis solutions, has announced the launch of the Informer Channel on YouTube. The new channel will feature video clips demonstrating features of the company's web-based reporting software used by thousands around the world.

Posted September 14, 2009

Why do business decision makers need to wait for IT to deliver performance reports on the business? Why can't they build their own reports, and gain rapid access to answer the questions they have?

Posted September 14, 2009

Microsoft SQL Server has been a favorite for years for organizations that want to implement business intelligence (BI) functionality - even in traditionally non-Microsoft shops. Especially since the SQL Server 2005 release, the ROI of a Microsoft solution coupled with the ease of implementation has driven healthy adoption of the DBMS for BI. And the integration of SQL Server 2008 with Microsoft Office, SharePoint Server, and PerformancePoint Services for delivering BI to end users has created an even stronger end-to-end platform.

Posted September 14, 2009

IT management software company CA, Inc. today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held NetQoS Inc., a provider of network performance management and service delivery solutions, for $200 million.

Posted September 14, 2009

Information Builders (IBI), a provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, announced support for IBM System z/OS computer Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) in Focus 7.6.10 and WebFocus 7.7. Information Builders says that its zIIP chip support represents the first and only BI platform optimized for the mainframe environment.

Posted September 08, 2009

Oracle Database 11g Release 2 is generally available and downloadable today from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). Improvements have been made in all key areas, with a general emphasis on helping customers lower their IT infrastructure costs.

Posted September 01, 2009

Pentaho Corporation, a commercial open source business intelligence and data integration software vendor, has announced the release of Pentaho BI Suite Version 3.5, which includes new report and dashboard design capabilities for both business and IT users, as well as technical and packaging changes to enable broad use of Pentaho for embedded business intelligence by OEMs and SaaS providers. In addition to the new software, Pentaho is also offering a new report migration service that enables the conversion of reporting from proprietary business intelligence platforms to the lower-cost Pentaho reporting tools.

Posted September 01, 2009

Entrinsik, Inc., a provider of web-based operational reporting and analysis solutions, has announced the launch of the Informer Channel on YouTube. The new channel will feature video clips demonstrating features of the company's web-based reporting software used by thousands around the world.

Posted August 26, 2009

MicroStrategy Inc., a provider of business intelligence software, has announced that its latest product release, MicroStrategy 9, runs on the VMware virtualization platform. MicroStrategy customers can now deploy MicroStrategy 9 BI applications on VMware-based virtual machines. This will enable applications to achieve the hardware efficiencies, streamlined operations, and low cost of operation available through virtualization.

Posted August 25, 2009

InterSystems Corporation yesterday introduced technology additions to its InterSystems CACHÉ high-performance object database. Available now in CACHÉ 2009, the new features provide enhanced web services security, reporting, and system management and monitoring.

Posted August 18, 2009

RightScale, Jaspersoft, Talend and Vertica have announced an integrated solutions stack intended to enable customers to increase agility and lower costs by combining the power of the cloud, a high-performance analytical database, and BI and data integration software. RightScale is a cloud computing management provider and offers a fully automated cloud management platform that enables customers to design, deploy, and manage business-critical applications on the cloud. Vertica provides the analytical database which is based on column-structure architecture. The BI software is provided by open source BI vendor Jaspersoft, and the data integration software by open source vendor Talend. This BI stack is an example of the power of collaboration among vendors to deliver integrated solutions, and by focusing their efforts on delivering BI on the cloud, customers now have tools to help them move quickly with BI projects.

Posted August 18, 2009

Four top Microsoft SQL Server executives will present keynote addresses at the Professional Association for SQL Server's PASS Summit Unite 2009 conference, Nov. 2-5.

Posted August 18, 2009

Microsoft SQL Server's relational engine has offered new instrumentation that improves by light years with each new release. The introduction of Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) in SQL Server 2005 provided a much-needed equivalent to Oracle's long-standing and capable V$ and X$ system views. SQL Server 2008 has provided another dramatic improvement to its instrumentation with Extended Events (also known as XEvents) that promises to offer even greater opportunities to tune, trace and troubleshoot the inner workings of a SQL Server application. All of this stands in stark contrast with the anemic instrumentation offered in SQL Server Analysis Services, Microsoft's wonderful multi-dimensional data repository that is a free feature-set within the SQL Server product.

Posted August 14, 2009

Netezza Corporation, a provider of data warehouse and analytic appliances, has introduced the Netezza TwinFin appliance, the first in a family of new blade server-based appliances. The TwinFin appliance scales to more than a petabyte of user data and delivers significantly better performance over competing solutions. The TwinFin appliance is also priced very reasonably per terabyte, which resets the bar on price-performance in the industry.

Posted August 04, 2009

Vertica, a column-oriented analytic database technology provider, has announced a new release of its Analytic Database product with new features for performance gains, increases in scale, and advanced analytics. The primary new features consist of a next-generation column-store architecture called FlexStore, MapReduce technology for advanced ETL loading and analytical processing, and load balancing via IPVS.

Posted August 04, 2009

IBM today announced an agreement to acquire SPSS, a provider of predictive analytics software, services and solutions that help clients forecast trends and anticipate change for business advantage. The $1.2 billion all-cash purchase of SPSS, a publicly held company headquartered in Chicago, is expected to close in the second half of 2009.

Posted July 28, 2009

SAP Business Objects recently announced enhancements to its Data Services and Data Federator software products, part of the SAP Business Objects Information Management (IM) Solutions Portfolio. These products support both SAP and non-SAP IT environments, and now with the latest release have expanded support for SAP customers with integration to the SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW).

Posted July 28, 2009

Oracle said last week that it has agreed to acquire GoldenGate Software, Inc., a leading provider of real-time data integration solutions.

Posted July 28, 2009

Oracle said today that it has agreed to acquire GoldenGate Software, Inc., a leading provider of real-time data integration solutions.

Posted July 23, 2009

Sybase, Inc. yesterday reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2009. Highlights of the quarter include historical second quarter records achieved in operating income, operating margin, net income, EPS, and cash flow; as well as license revenue that increased 4% year over year and 11% in constant currency; and database license revenue that increased 23% and 30% in constant currency. Additionally, mobile software license revenue increased 4% and 11% in constant currency.

Posted July 22, 2009

SPSS, a provider of predictive analytics software and solutions, has released PASW Statistics 18, the latest version of its statistics software suite used by commercial, government and academic organizations to solve business and research problems.

Posted July 21, 2009

Visual i/o, a technology vendor that provides business analytics and and visualization software, has announced a cloud-based Software-as-Service (SaaS) solution that allows employees and managers throughout an enterprise to simultaneously access, visualize, analyze and collaborate with one another on essential data.

Posted July 21, 2009

Sybase, Inc. today announced the availability of Sybase IQ 15.1, the newest version of its column-based analytics server. With this new release, organizations can utilize Sybase IQ 15.1 in-database analytics functionality to run predictive analytics business logic directly in the database.

Posted July 14, 2009

SAP AG recently introduced new capabilities in two SAP BusinessObjects governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) solutions that promote automated risk management and compliance strategies. New versions of the SAP BusinessObjects Risk Management and Process Control applications give customers the clarity required to help ensure that the right controls are in place, helping them to both comply with government regulations and manage business risks.

Posted July 14, 2009

SenSage has announced that it is participating in the EMC Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence/Analytics Competency Center to provide customers an optimized solution to manage large-scale event data warehouse and business intelligence environments. SenSage offers patented event data warehouse solutions that provide actionable results from large amounts of log and event data. The SenSage data warehouse software is integrated with EMC networked storage systems, and is designed to help organizations achieve cost efficiencies and reduce time-to-value in data warehouse deployments.

Posted July 14, 2009

Predictive Analytics - sometimes referred to as Predictive Data Mining - is a branch of Business Intelligence that attempts to use historical data to make predictions about future events. At its simplest, predictive analytics utilizes statistical techniques, such as correlation and regression, which many of us have encountered in college or even high school. Correlation analysis determines if there is a statistically significant relationship between two variables. For instance, height and age are highly correlated, while IQ and height are very weakly correlated. Regression attempts to find an equation between the two or more variables, so that you can predict one from the other.

Posted July 13, 2009

At a rather muted Microsoft TechEd in Los Angeles in May, the crowds were diminished and the educational content was slimmed down. In the past, SQL Server sessions were so abundant that you'd have trouble choosing which of several you might want to attend. This year, the state of the economy was reflected in many ways, including the one, or, in just a few cases, two sessions per time slot allotted SQL Server professionals. Despite the low ebb, the Microsoft SQL Server team made an exciting announcement about the upcoming availability of the SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP (Community Technology Preview).

Posted July 13, 2009

ParAccel, Inc., a provider of massively parallel processing (MPP) columnar database technology, has introduced version 2.0 of the ParAccel Analytic Database (PADB) for data warehousing and analytics. PADB 2.0 tackles complex business questions faster by leveraging dozens of new features and enhancements, including patent-pending innovations in query optimization and SAN integration. PADB 2.0 will be generally available in August, 2009 and can be licensed as software or as a virtual or packaged data warehouse appliance.

Posted July 07, 2009

Panorama Software, a provider of BI solutions, has announced NovaView Version 6.0, a tightly integrated suite of web-enabled BI applications. Like past versions, NovaView 6.0 combines strong capabilities for query and analysis, formatted reporting, performance dashboards, KPI scorecards, modeling, advanced visualization and automated report distribution. It also includes new deployment wizards and applications, as well as a more robust platform.

Posted July 07, 2009

MicroStrategy has announced the availability of MicroStrategy business intelligence reports, dashboards, and scorecards on the Amazon Kindle DX, enabling MicroStrategy BI users to store, retrieve, and review business intelligence reports on the Kindle DX in PDF format while away from the office.

Posted July 07, 2009

Software AG, a provider of business infrastructure software, announced it would soon be shipping the latest release of its flagship webMethods platform, webMethods 8.0. The package includes CentraSite ActiveSOA, a unified repository for business and technical services.

Posted July 07, 2009

Oracle has announced the general availability of Oracle Real-Time Decisions Release 3.0. Oracle Real-Time Decisions is a decision management platform to deliver targeted recommendations during customer interaction, or wherever optimized decisions need to be made in business processes such as risk management, retention management or cross-sell/upsell.

Posted July 01, 2009

Infobright, a open source data warehousing company, and Pentaho Corporation, a commercial open source alternative for business intelligence, have joined forces with Sun Microsystems to deliver a hardware and software solution that lowers the cost of entry and simplifies deployment of a powerful BI infrastructure.

Posted June 30, 2009

Jive, a technology vendor focused on social business software has recently announced an OEM agreement with SAP Business Objects, through which it will deliver community analytics that combine its Social Business Software (SBS) platform together with SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand offerings

Posted June 30, 2009

Visual Numerics, Inc., part of Rogue Wave Software, and a producer of advanced numerical analysis and visualization software, has announced an OEM partnership with Sybase. Visual Numerics offers two product lines: the IMSL Numerical Libraries for powerful mathematical and statistical analysis and the PV-WAVE visual data analysis development environment. As part of the OEM partnership, Sybase is embedding multiple IMSL Library time series analysis functions into Sybase RAP - The Trading Edition Enterprise, a unified market analytics platform that lets capital markets firms make more intelligent, efficient use of data for better analytics, decisions and reporting across the front-to-back office trade lifecycle.

Posted June 24, 2009

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