Five Noteworthy Big Data Analytics Apps
April 22, 2013
As the relationship between Big Data and analytics continues to grow so does the number of enterprise analytics applications. There are now a variety of applications designed to help enterprises get the most from their Big Data. The Enterprise Apps Today article “5 More Buzz-worthy Big Data Analytics Apps” gives an overview of the analytic tools Concurrent, Birst, SAS, Clearstory Data and Terracotta. Concurrent Lingual is a free open source project that was designed to work with Apache Hadoop. It uses Cascading application framework which allows SQL users to use their existing skills to run application on Hadoop without needing additional training. Birst Big Data is notable because experts say it helps to eliminate a vast majority of the upfront investment that is generally required to leverage Big Data. SAS Visual Analytics uses an in-memory engine to help speed up the analytics as well as the visualization process. Mark Torr, director of the SAS Global Center of Excellence stated
“SAS Visual Analytics enables creation and dissemination of dashboards, reports and the results of investigative exploration either through the Web or to native mobile applications running on an iPad or Android tablet. We believe that we are the only vendor that has analytics in-built rather than tagged-on through call outs to other services.”
“Terracotta In-Genius sits on top of Terracotta’s BigMemory 4.0 in-memory data platform. It comes with event stream processing and messaging, is said to process one million event transactions per second, identify patterns and create action items based on predicted behavior. It is also certified to operate with Oracle, SAP Hana and Hadoop.”
ClearStory Data gives users the ability to discover, analyze as well as consume data from data sources including Hadoop and Web and social application interfaces. For me these apps were new but regardless they definitely seem to bring a little something extra to the table when it comes to Big Data and analytics.
April Holmes, April 22, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Social Analytics Tips
April 21, 2013
Social media analysis has become popular among marketers, but many businesses have no idea what their return on investment is with these tools. In fact, we learn from BtoB‘s “4 Things to Remember About Social Media Analytics,” a recent survey by BtoB found that just 41 percent of marketers even try to measure their social ROI. Why?
Writer Karen J. Bannan cites Altimeter analyst Susan Etlinger, who says the problem is rooted in fuzzy intentions from the beginning of companies’ venture into social media. You have to have a goal before you can measure progress toward it. A related problem lies in deciding how to use the data you collect.
Bannan offers four points to keep in mind when approaching social media analytics. First, she notes that measuring whether a company or product is mentioned means little if you don’t know the sentiment within the comments. Are folks praising or panning? Another point emphasizes the need for careful human judgment. Item number two reads:
“Some of the most important social mentions won’t use your company or product names. The idea of brand monitoring is not as valid as many believe, said David Rabjohns, CEO of MotiveQuest, a social market research firm. ‘When people are talking about something in social, 95% of them aren’t going to mention a product because they are talking about brands as enablers of their passion,’ he said. ‘But marketers think that everyone is talking about their brand.’ Marketing is evolving from storytelling to story listening, he said. Again, marketers need to be on sites where customers are spending time and listen carefully to everything they say—not just pay attention to specific keywords or phrases that show up in reports.”
Ah, but is that too much of a labor investment for most companies?
The article goes on to observe that there is a wide array of metrics tools available, and companies should choose carefully. Look for one that emphasizes insights that can be applied to decision-making. Scalability is another huge plus. Finally, be aware of the differences between social media flavors. For example, while a Pinterest post is nigh eternal, a tweet will lose relevance very quickly.
Cynthia Murrell, April 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Tougher Times for Cash Hungry Content Processing Vendors?
April 18, 2013
I read the troubling write up “Q1 Venture Capital Spending And Number Of Deals Down, M&A Activity Drops 44 Percent And Pre-Money Valuations Plummet”. Try as I might, I could not see much good news in the data presented.
The main point of the write up was in my opinion:
Deals in Information Technology (IT), Healthcare, Energy and Utilities, and Industrial Goods all declined, and deals in Business and Financial Services, Consumer Goods, and Consumer Services investment increased from the previous quarter.
For companies in the search, content processing, and analytics sector with a consumer angle, the good news is that money may continue to flow and may, in some cases, spike.
For other types of outfits, money may become more difficult to get. If a funding source is available, my hunch is that investors may be taking increasingly critical looks at the companies ingesting money. How does one age a Type A 35 year old senior manager? My thought is, “Ask for actions that deliver revenue, not marketing puffery.” I am probably off base, but the Techcrunch story suggests that a downward trend may be upon us.
One cannot forget that the investors’ expectation is a return. For companies in the old “search” space, revenues are going to be needed to avoid one of those legendary investor actions: Top management replacement, fire sale, forced merger, intellectual property auction, shut down, or some similar step.
Going forward, search, content processing, and analytics vendors are going to have to generate more revenue. In short, the squeezable days of the last three years may be going away.
Can the search, content processing, and analytics vendors which have taken sums ranging from a few million (BA Insight, Digital Reasoning) to tens of millions (Attivio, Coveo) to hundreds of millions (Palantir) deliver significant top line growth and demonstrate a here-and-now value proposition? One or more of these companies will definitely perform. The ones which do not? Well, that’s what makes search and content processing so darned interesting.
One of my financial clients has asked me to poke around with some numbers and market appetite. No results in hand yet. The project is interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, April 18, 2013
Sponsored by HighGainBlog
McKinsey Supplies Valuable Information Through New Newsletter
April 18, 2013
Analytics outfit McKinsey is engaged in a savvy marketing effort. The company now offers a newsletter packed with information on big data, the McKinsey Quarterly, first published in March. For example, they help businesses put together big-data strategies with their first article, while the second details three key challenges of data analytics. This month, they have turned to a crucial market segment; the company tells us:
“Two additional articles–the first set in a series on how analytics has been changing key industries–apply these insights specifically to health care. The Big-Data Revolution in US Health Care: Accelerating Value and Innovation explains why analytics could transform the sector. How Big Data Can Revolutionize Pharmaceutical shows a way forward for companies struggling with declining success rates and stagnant pipelines. Both include video interviews with McKinsey directors, who discuss the challenges that organizations face.”
McKinsey is proud to provide well-informed management consulting services to organizations in a variety of fields around the world. The veteran company was founded in 1926, during the early days of management theory. More recently, McKinsey has prudently seized upon technology as a natural addition to the core considerations of strategy, organization, and operations.
Cynthia Murrell, April 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Big Data Job Market Boom
April 17, 2013
Big data and analytics means more than just helping companies wade through unstructured data to make better decisions. In this time of economic woe, it also means jobs. Few other places outside of fracking are people hiring like they are for the big data revolution, as we learned from a recent Government News article, “SAIC Builds Victorian Cyber Security Center.”
According to the story:
“Global research and development company, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) will develop the regional cyber security centre to support its efforts for the Australian Government and industry clients. The researchers will also be involved with developing software applications associated with SAIC subsidiary CloudShield Technologies Inc, and TeraText products. According to the Victorian Government, the centre will create 50 skilled jobs involved with the facility over the next three years.”
As we have heard from several other sources, the big data job market is booming. Dice recently broke down the outlook for the market and what skills data experts need. Saying: “The expected market for Big Data is expected to surpass $100 billion…This means that employment opportunities in the area will increase.” We agree and see this as a boom time to get into the industry that logically isn’t going anywhere, since we are producing more and more data all the time and need someone to manage it.
Patrick Roland, April 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Avoiding Unnecessary Data
April 16, 2013
Speed is the key. We can talk about a lot of different elements that help build successful big data and analytics, but at the end of the day a program’s speed is the thing that matters above all else. Shaving a few seconds off organizing unstructured data can add up to a lot over the lifecycle of a business and there are some impressive steps being taken to avoid wasting time with unnecessary data, as we discovered in a recent Data Center Knowledge story, “IBM Advances Big Data Platform, PureData System for Hadoop.”
According to the story:
“IBM BLU Acceleration delivers key information to users faster by extending the capabilities of traditional in-memory systems – which allows data to be loaded into Random Access Memory instead of hard disks for faster performance – by providing in-memory performance even when data sets exceed the size of the memory. Innovations in BLU Acceleration include “data skipping,” which allows the ability to skip over data that doesn’t need to be analyzed…”
IBM’s breakthrough couldn’t come at a more appropriate time, because Computer Weekly has just released a story about the millions companies waste on storing and dealing with unnecessary data. Read it here. The key with all this is streamlining. Business moves faster than ever so any step that can be taken to minimize drag is welcomed.
Patrick Roland, April 16, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Media Spotlights Vivisimo
April 15, 2013
If there’s one thing we can count on with analytic news it is the idea of familiar names popping up in unexpected places. That was our initial instinct upon reading a recent Sys-Con story, “Innovative Analytics—Changing the IT Landscape.”
The biggest surprise was this tidbit of news:
“IBM is a late entrant into developing a core product focused on log analytics leveraging new technologies. Their new product is promising as it integrates competencies from multiple software divisions as well as the recent Vivisimo acquisition. This combination of products brings the challenge of integration and installation, while allowing the new product to pull strengths of multiple best-of-breed products. By integrating systems manuals as an additional source to identify specific problems, this new workload analytics capability will be a good addition for existing and new IBM Tivoli customers.”
We were pleased to see a solid company like Vivisimo get so much praise here. It is well deserved as their stock continues to rise. To illustrate, we also caught them in a recent edition of Washington Business Journal. There’s something to be said for garnering so much press in a small window of time. To us, it means people are catching on and focusing on this company. The media can tell you a lot in that way.
Patrick Roland, April 15, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Recommind Moves into Healthcare
April 14, 2013
Recommind is embracing the healthcare market. Marketwire shares, “Recommind Will Be First Time Speaker and Sponsor at World Health Care Congress Conference.” With legal conquered, it looks like the company is on to new adventures. We learn from the press release:
“Recommind, a leader in unstructured data management, analysis and governance technology, today announced it will be sponsoring and speaking for the first time at the World Health Care Congress (WHCC) event on April 8-10 at the Gaylord National Harbor in Maryland. Recommind will join the global health care community of business, political, and academic leaders to actively share information and collaborate to improve the overall quality and cost of health delivery in the US and throughout the world.”
The company hosted a speaking session, at which they advised attendees on key analytics issues, like implementing an efficient infrastructure, communicating information back to providers, analytics-informed preventative programs, and sharing improved outcomes. It is good to see the company branching into the spirited medical arena.
Experts at handling unstructured data, Recommind provides search-powered analysis and governance solutions to customers around the world. These tools are built around on their CORE information management platform. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company was formed in 2000.
Cynthia Murrell, April 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Oracle Upgrades Discovery and BI Tools
April 14, 2013
Oracle has released upgrades aimed at improving business outcomes and simplifying IT requirements, we learn from a press release posted at MarketWatch, “Oracle Extends Business Analytics Portfolio Empowering Organizations to Transform Data Into Insights.” Both Endeca Information Discovery and Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite have been enhanced. The company points out that both solutions perform best on their tailor-made Exalytics In-Memory Machine. The write-up informs us:
“Oracle Endeca Information Discovery 3.0 delivers a completely redesigned user interface that offers new drag and drop visualizations to provide users with a superior discovery experience, new personal data load for business users to add their own Excel data files to IT provided data, and new Oracle BI Server connectivity, to leverage trusted data from existing analytic applications, along with other features.
“Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite Release 11.1.1.7 delivers significant enhancements to usability, mobility, user experience and Big Data integration, enabling organizations to analyze critical information and get the intelligence they need to optimize their business.
“Endeca Information Discovery and Oracle BI Foundation Suite run better on Oracle Exalytics In-Memory Machine, the industry’s first engineered system for Business Analytics. Oracle Exalytics takes best-in class analytics and in-memory software engineered on high-performance hardware to reduce the cost and complexity of IT infrastructures while increasing productivity and performance for data discovery, business intelligence, modeling and planning applications.”
This Exalytics machine has the potential to make the entire BI undertaking much, much simpler. Endeca, acquired by Oracle in 2011, has long been a strong player in the enterprise discovery field. Oracle’s BI suite integrates several key features in one platform: enterprise reporting, dashboards, ad-hoc analysis, scenario analysis, scorecards, and predictive analytics. The company’s commitment to supplying cutting-edge technology while maintaining easy-to-use interfaces is apparent in these latest improvements.
Cynthia Murrell, April 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Chiliad and Virtual Consolidation
April 13, 2013
Yep, fragmentation is an issue even in big data analytics. I read “Chiliad Takes Virtual Consolidation Route to Big Data Analytics.” Chiliad is a company which provides software and services to a number of US government agencies and to other customers as well.
The main point of the write up is:
Chiliad says it can eliminate some of those barriers to adoption of big data analytics with Discovery/Alert 7.0, an iterative information retrieval system that lets analysts search any data warehouse or data set across clouds, agencies, departments and organizations.
The once popular term “federation” has given way to a host of synonyms, including unified information access and consolidation. The new twist is the use of the word “virtual” which implies that leaving data where it resides is something new. The alternative is creating a data warehouse like the old iPhrase system and other repository centric approaches to data management.
The article contains this statement: “Discovery/Alert provides global ranking of results to help analysts find relevant information in massive collections of data.” Then I read, “We [Chiliad] actually give you a unified, holistic global ranking of all of your results… As organizations scale out to billions of records and petabytes of data, relevancy becomes more important.”
The story highlights features which remind me of Fast Search & Transfer’s descriptions of its system. In fact, a number of search and content processing vendors have made similar points for many years.
What’s new? The emphasis is on “all” and “virtual.” Will these concepts be enough to move search and content processing, analytics, and business intelligence forward? Will these assertions cause some firms to dog paddle instead of speeding to the finish line?
I don’t know. The marketing points seem remarkable consistent in my opinion. The problems seem to be unsolved despite the efforts of many, many vendors to deliver actionable information.
Stephen E Arnold, April 13, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky.com, the new ArnoldIT portal
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