A Possibility of Profit from Autonomy Deal
December 15, 2014
While this is the season of miracles and magic, usually those are reserved for Hallmark movies and people in need, but one could argue that HP was in desperate need after the Autonomy fiasco. Maybe their Christmas wish will come true if the Information Week article “HP Cloud Adds Big Data Options” makes correct prediction.
HP will release its Haven big data analytics platform through the HP Helion cloud as Haven OnDemand. The writer believes this is HP’s next logical step given Autonomy Idol was released in January as SaaS. The popular Vertica DBMS will also be launches as a cloud service.
“Cloud-based database services have proven to be popular, with Amazon’s fast-growing Redshift service being an obvious point of comparison. Both HP Vertica and Redshift are distributed, columnar databases that are ideally suited to high-scale data-mart and data-warehouse use cases.”
HP wants to make a mark in the big data market and help their clients harness the valuable insights hiding in structured and unstructured data. While HP is on its way to becoming a key component in big data software, but it still needs improvement to compete. It doesn’t offer Hadoop OnDemand and it also lacks ETL, analytics software, and BI solutions that run alongside HP Haven OnDemand.
The company is finally moving forward and developing products that will start making up for the money lost in the Autonomy deal. How long will it take, however, to get every penny back?
Whitney Grace, December 15, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Cisco Relies on OpenSOC through GitHub When it Comes to Big Data
December 10, 2014
The article on Enterprise Networking Planet titled Cisco Goes Open-Source for Big Data Analytics discusses the change for Cisco with some high-ups in the company. Annie Ballew, Solutions Architect in the Cisco Security Business Group, mentions that OpenSOC is not actually a Security Information and Event Management system but rather should be considered “big data technology for security analytics.” OpenSOC is freely available through Github. The article states,
“While the OpenSOC project itself is open-source, Cisco is already leveraging the technology in its commercial products.”OpenSOC is currently included in our Managed Threat Defense services offering where it is installed, implemented and fully operationalized,” Ballew said. Cisco launched its Manage Threat Defense service in April. That service manages and monitors logs as well as a customer’s security event lifecycle. Ballew added that OpenSOC is also integrated with various other Cisco security components such as Sourcefire FirePower NGIPS, SourceFire AMP, and ThreatGrid.”
The article also remarks on the importance of Elasticsearch to OpenSOC. The Kibana project provides the dashboard for the opensource Elasticsearch project, and Cisco admits that they work with Elasticsearch, but currently that relationship is only through Kibana. Cisco has worked with open-source before, so perhaps it should be no surprise that they turn to OpenSOC to meet their security demands when it comes to big data.
Chelsea Kerwin, December 10, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Pi in the Sky: HP and IBM Race to Catch Up with NGIA Leaders
December 7, 2014
I read “HP Takes Analytics to the Cloud in Comeback to IBM’s Watson.” The write up is darned interesting. Working through the analysis reminded me that HP does not realized that Autonomy’s 1999 customer BAE Systems has been working with analytics from the cloud for—what?—15 years? What about Recorded Future, SAIC, and dozens of other companies running successful businesses with this strategy?
The article points out that two large and somewhat pressured $100 billion companies are innovating like all get out. I learned:
Although it [Hewlett Packard] may not win any trivia contests in the foreseeable future, the hardware maker’s entry into the world of end-of-end analytics does hold up to Watson where the rubber meets the road in the enterprise…But the true equalizer for the company is IDOL, the natural language processing and search it obtained through the $11.7 billion acquisition of Autonomy Corp. PLC in 2011, which reduces the gap between human and machine interaction in a similar fashion to IBM’s cognitive computing platform.
Okay. IBM offers Watson, which was supposed to generate a billion or more by 2015 and then surge to $10 billion in revenue in another four or five years. What is Watson? As I understand it, Watson is open source code, some bits and pieces from IBM’s research labs, and wrappers that convert search into a towering giant of artificial intelligence. Why doesn’t IBM focus on its next generation information access units that are exciting and delivering services that customers want. i2 does not produce recipes incorporating tamarind. Cybertap does not help sick teenagers.
HP, on the other hand, owns the Autonomy Digital Reasoning Engine and the Integrated Data Operating Layer. These incorporate numerical recipes based on the work of Bayes, LaPlace, and Markov, among others. The technology is not open source. Instead, IDOL is a black box. HP spent $11 billion for Autonomy, figured out that it overpaid, wrote off $5 billion or so, and launched a global scorched earth policy for its management methods. Recently, HP has migrated DRE and IDOL to the cloud. Okay, but HP is putting more effort into accusing Autonomy of fooling HP. Didn’t HP buy Autonomy after experts reviewed the deal, the technology, and the financial statements? HP has lost years in an attempt to redress a perceived wrong. But HP decided to buy Autonomy.
Start Your Search Engines…Go!
December 5, 2014
What does predictive analytics have to do with formula 1 racing? Everything, says Computer World UK in “McLaren’s F1 Predictive Analytics Snapped Up By KPMG.” Formula 1 is to Europe as NASCAR is to the United States. It is one of Europe’s most popular sports and a lot of high-end technology is used to make the sport more exciting. McLaren is a top team and KPMG, a tax and advisory firm purchased its predictive analytics. KPMG will then use the analytics software to improve audits and advisory services.
“Simon Collins, KPMG’s UK chairman said: ‘McLaren has honed sophisticated predictive analytics and technologies that can be applied to many business issues. We believe this specialist knowledge has the power to radically transform audit, improving quality and providing greater insight to management teams, audit committees and investors.’”
McLaren is also renowned for its software being used to make split level decisions. The software’s potential is untested and its capability to help more industries is about to take off from the start line.
Whitney Grace, December 05, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Tibco Integrates Attivio Features into Spotfire Analytics Platform
November 28, 2014
Tibco has upgraded its Spotfire analytics platform, we learn from “Content Analytics Now Available in TIBCO Spotfire” at MarketWatch. The press release reports:
“Now customers can connect to new sources of unstructured text-based data and discover trends, identify patterns, and derive new business insights for improved decision making. Fully integrated into the Spotfire UI, the new Spotfire product capability powered by Attivio’s Active Intelligence Engine, will deliver fast, comprehensive sentiment, content, and text analytics functionality.”
Attivio’s CEO expresses excitement over the integration of their Active Intelligence Engine into Spotfire, confident the combination will make it easy to analyze unstructured data and lead to “powerful business insights.” The award-winning platform is central to Attivio, which was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Massachusetts. The write-up highlights a few new features:
“*Enhanced usability through Attivio’s search box into Spotfire dashboards, allowing for an intuitive experience for business users to search for new insights and analytic views from new content sources.
*Apply predictive analytics to human-created information, using Spotfire’s Predictive Modeling tools or by scripting in the R language using TIBCO Enterprise Runtime for R (TERR).
*Integrate content from Microsoft SharePoint leveraging Attivio’s SharePoint connector.”
Launched in 1997, Tibco serves up infrastructure and business intelligence solutions to businesses in several industries around the world. While the company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, it maintains offices on several continents.
Cynthia Murrell, November 28, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Mid Tier Consultants Try the Turkey Tactic
November 27, 2014
Entering 2015, the economy is not ripping along like some of the MBAs suggest. Life is gloomy for many keyword search, content management, and indexing system vendors. And for good reason. These technologies have run their course. Instead of being must have enterprise solutions, the functions are now utilities. The vendors of proprietary systems have to realize that free and open source systems provide “good enough” utility type functions.
Perhaps this brutal fact is the reason that search “expert” Dave Schubmehl recycled our research on open source software, tried to flog it on Amazon without my permission, and then quietly removed the reports based on ArnoldIT research. When a mid tier consulting firm cannot sell recycled research taken without permission for sale via Amazon for the quite incredible price of $3,500 for eight pages of information garbling our work, you know that times are tough for the mid tier crowd.
Are the turkeys the mid-tier consultants or their customers? Predictions about the future wrapped in the tin foil of jargon may not work like touts who pick horses. The difference between a mid tier consulting firm and a predictive analytics firm is more than the distance between an art history major and a PhD in mathematics with a Master’s in engineering and an undergraduate degree in history in my opinion.
Now the focus at the mid tier consulting firms is turning to the issue of raising turkeys. Turkeys are stellar creatures. Is it true that the turkey is the only fowl that will drown itself during a rain storm. My grandmother told me the birds will open their beaks and capture the rain. According to the Arnold lore, some lightning quick turkeys will drown themselves.
For 2015, the mid tier consultants want to get the Big Data bird moving. Also, look for the elegant IoT or Internet of Things to get the blue ribbon treatment. You can get a taste of this dish in this news release: “IDC Hosts Worldwide Internet of Things 2015 Predictions Web Conference.”
Yep, a Web conference. I call this a webinar, and I have webinar fatigue. The conference is intended to get the turkeys in the barn. Presumably some of the well heeled turkeys will purchase the IDC Future Scape report. When I mentioned this to a person with whom I spoke yesterday, I think that individual said, “A predictions conference. You are kidding me.” An, no I wasn’t. Here’s the passage I noted:
“The Internet of Things will give IT managers a lot to think about,” said Vernon Turner, Senior Vice President of Research at IDC. “Enterprises will have to address every IT discipline to effectively balance the deluge of data from devices that are connected to the corporate network. In addition, IoT will drive tough organizational structure changes in companies to allow innovation to be transparent to everyone, while creating new competitive business models and products.”
I think I understand. “Every”, “tough organizational changes,” and “new competitive business models.” Yes. And the first example is a report with predictions.
When I think of predictions, I don’t think of mid tier consultants. I think of outfits like Recorded Future, Red Owl, and Haystax, among others. The predictions these companies output are based on data. Predictions from mid tier consultants are based on a wide range of methods. I have a hunch that some of these techniques include folks sitting around and asking, “Well, what do you think this Internet of Things stuff will mean?”
Give me the Recorded Future approach. Oh, I don’t like turkey. I am okay with macaroni and cheese. Basic but it lacks the artificial fizz with which some farmers charge their fowl.
Stephen E Arnold, November 27, 2014
Remember That Twitter Search System?
November 26, 2014
I read “New Twitter Search API Won’t Be Available to Third-Party Clients.” The write up says:
Twitter doesn’t have the guts to just end them outright, so they’re just gradually inflicting passive-aggressive wounds over time to quietly shove them into the sunset.
The notion that unlimited, free access to the Twitter content resource is one with which I cannot relate. There are useful items tucked into Twitter, and the company is likely to become increasingly restrictive in the access to and use of the Twitter content objects and attendant metadata.
Stephen E Arnold, November 26, 2014
Attensity Finds New Data Trends But Is It Different Than Anyone Else?
November 26, 2014
Enterprise Apps Today has an article called “Attensity Boosts Ability To Discover ‘Unknown’ Trends In Data,” discussing how Attensity was updated with new features to detect themes in real-time social data, catch spam, and make it easier to compose/filter queries. Before Attensity’s new software updates, social analytics tools use mentions to measure interest in products. The “mentions” are not the most quantifiable way to see if a product is successful.
The new Attensity Q tracks themes, trends, anomalies, and events around a product in the context of online conversations. This makes it easier to create new vocabularies and brand-unique terms into queries.
” ‘Social analytics has largely been limited up to this point by forming hypotheses and testing them – the hunting and pecking for insights that traditional search requires you to do,” [Senior Project Manager and NLP Strategist Katherine] Matsumoto said. “But there is a growing need for our customers to be presented with findings that they didn’t know to look for. These findings may be within their search topic, adjacent to it or many degrees removed through nested relationships.’ “
Attensity Q has more applications than retail. It can be used for legal departments to detect fraudulent activities and by HR departments to target area for improvement. It could even be used with healthcare patient data to track unusual patterns and offer a better diagnosis.
Rather than bragging about big data’s possibilities, Attensity is describing some practical applications and their uses.
Whitney Grace, November 26, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Traditional Publishing versus Digital Flow
November 24, 2014
I read “Technology Set Journalism Free, Now New Platforms Are in Control.” I reacted positively to the word “platforms.” After I read the essay, I am not convinced that the platforms mentioned in the article are in control. These platforms have the appearance of control, but I think Facebook, Twitter, and other big consumer services have a flaw. The content streams can be manipulated, often easily. There are platforms that operate outside of the consumer sector. Some of these platforms are far more important than channels that disseminate content (either well intentioned or weaponized).
The challenge publishers who want to use print as a revenue generator and as a way to enforce information control on a customer segment face a number of challenges. The big one is figuring out how to make money as monopolies develop in various sectors. There are some interesting efforts to combine print and digital; for example, the Monocle operation. For most of the companies wanting to tap print’s unique power, the problems require clear thinking. When I have been asked to think about how to make print work, I extricate myself from that engagement. I am probably able to come up with useful ideas, but I want to spend my time working on more interesting problems.
The flaw in this write up and others that try to find a place in today’s world for certain approaches to information is cost. As soon as paper is involved, the expense of buying it, printing on it, shipping it, and delivering it are greater than the money most companies can generate by selling it. Without money, the companies accustomed to information control and its attendant power have a big job to do.
Niche outfits may be able to do okay. But the big companies dependent on print thinking are probably going to fall out of their leather chairs.
And what about the platforms that most do not see or do not seek out? These will continue to expand their reach, scope, and capabilities. When cheerleaders for Facebook and similar companies wake up, another paradigm shift will be well underway.
What’s interesting is that today’s new platforms will be facing the challenges print publishers deal with today.
Stephen E Arnold, November 24, 2014
Watson Does Mail and Analytics to Complement Inventing Recipes
November 19, 2014
IBM is beating the drum for Watson. “IBM Brings Watson Tinged Analytics to New Mail and Social Platform” reports about “an enterprise social collaboration platform with built in analytics.”
When I read the article, I thought of Semandex. My recollection is that this New Jersey-based company has a similar system. Perhaps the IBM collaboration function will be different from what Semandex offers.
My reaction to the flow of Watson “news” is that IBM is going to have to shift into high gear in order to generate $1 billion in revenue from scripts and open source software. With the $10 billion target looming 60 months out, I would suggest that IBM needs to make big sales to high profile clients quickly and in a serial fashion.
Right now Watson is enriching public relations and marketing types. IBM needs big, high margin sales. We have identified 36 companies providing more advanced functions than Watson. Time may be running out, particularly if an IBM competitor snaps up two or three of the outfits on our watch list.
Stephen E Arnold, November 19, 2014
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