Next-Generation Analytics: Four Findings from TDWI’s Latest Best Practices Report

I recently completed TDWI’s latest Best Practices Report: Next Generation Analytics and Platforms for Business Success. Although the phrase "next-generation analytics and platforms" can evoke images of machine learning, big data, Hadoop, and the Internet of things (IoT), most organizations are somewhere in between the technology vision and today’s reality of BI and dashboards. For… Continue reading Next-Generation Analytics: Four Findings from TDWI’s Latest Best Practices Report

3 Takeaways from the IBM Big Data Event

Last week I attended the IBM Big Data at the Speed of Business event at IBM’s Research facility in Almaden.  At this analyst event IBM announced multiple capabilities around its big data initiative including its new BLU Acceleration and IBM PureData System for Hadoop.  Additionally, new versions of Infosphere Big Insights and Infosphere Streams (for data… Continue reading 3 Takeaways from the IBM Big Data Event

Two Weeks and Counting to Big Data for Dummies

I am excited to announce I’m a co-author of Big Data for Dummies which will be released in mid-April 2013.  Here’s the synopsis from Wiley: Find the right big data solution for your business or organization Big data management is one of the major challenges facing business, industry, and not-for-profit organizations. Data sets such as… Continue reading Two Weeks and Counting to Big Data for Dummies

Hadoop + MapReduce + SQL + Big Data and Analytics: RainStor

As the volume and variety of data continues to increase, we’re going to see more companies entering the market with solutions to address big data and compliant retention and business analytics.  One such company is RainStor, which while not a new entrant (with over 150 end-customers through direct sales and partner channels) has recently started… Continue reading Hadoop + MapReduce + SQL + Big Data and Analytics: RainStor

Four Vendor Views on Big Data and Big Data Analytics: IBM

Next in my discussion of big data providers is IBM.   Big data plays right into IBM’s portfolio of solutions in the information management space.  It also dove tails very nicely with the company’s Smarter Planet strategy.  Smarter Planet holds the vision of the world as a more interconnected, instrumented, and intelligent place.  IBM’s Smarter Cities… Continue reading Four Vendor Views on Big Data and Big Data Analytics: IBM

Informatica announces 9.1 and puts stake in the ground around big data

Earlier this week, Informatica announced the release of the Informatica 9.1 Platform for Big Data. The company joins other data centric vendors such as EMC and IBM by putting its stake in the ground around the hot topic of Big Data. Informatica defines Big Data as, “all data, including both transaction and interaction data, in… Continue reading Informatica announces 9.1 and puts stake in the ground around big data

EMC and Big Data- Observations from EMC World 2011

I attended EMC’s User Conference last week in Las Vegas. The theme of the event was Big Data meets the Cloud. So, what’s going on with Big Data and EMC? Does this new strategy make sense? EMC acquired Greenplum in 2010. At the time EMC described Greenplum as a “shared nothing, massively parallel processing (MPP)… Continue reading EMC and Big Data- Observations from EMC World 2011

Advanced Analytics and the skills needed to make it happen: Takeaways from IBM IOD

Advanced Analytics was a big topic at the IBM IOD conference last week. As part of this, predictive analytics was again an important piece of the story along with other advanced analytics capabilities IBM has developed or is in the process of developing to support optimization. These include Big Insights (for big data), analyzing data… Continue reading Advanced Analytics and the skills needed to make it happen: Takeaways from IBM IOD

Analyzing Big Data

The term “Big Data” has gained popularity over the past 12-24 months as a) amounts of data available to companies continually increase and b) technologies have emerged to more effectively manage this data. Of course, large volumes of data have been around for a long time. For example, I worked in the telecommunications industry for… Continue reading Analyzing Big Data