Digital Reasoning Unleashes Human Analysis to the Cloud
December 8, 2013
Digital Reasoning has built its reputation by providing products that automate the understanding of human communication. One could say they put the humanity in technology. Digital Reasoning has taken its technology to a “higher” level says Broadway World, “Digital Reasoning Debuts Cloud Version Of Its Machine Learning Platform That Analyzes Human Language, Set Sights On Data Scientists.” The Synthesys Machine Learning Platform will be released on the AWS Marketplace and will be available as Synthesys Cloud.
Digital Reasoning hopes that by putting the Synthesys Cloud on AWS Marketplace will allow its clients to process and analyze larger amounts of unstructured data faster and more efficiently. It will also offer a large number of benefits to data scientists:
- “Rather than spending time on IT tasks such as installing and configuring various hardware and software components, users are able to launch a Synthesys cluster with just a few clicks allowing them to focus on uploading, analyzing and exploring data.
- Synthesys simplifies the parsing of human language data such as Web content, documents, emails and other electronic communications into semantically rich structures (i.e. entities, facts and relationships) so that data scientists do not have to be subject matter experts in Natural Language Processing (NLP).
- Synthesys Cloud offers initial support for 3rd party query tools such as Apache Hive, which gives users power and flexibility to explore and visualize Synthesys output.
- Synthesys Cloud on the AWS Marketplace makes it easy and affordable for any budget to pay-as-they-go by taking advantage of low hourly billing rates and the ability to combine Synthesys with other AWS offerings.”
This company stresses how Synthesys Cloud is an amazing, new tool for data scientists. However, it offers separate reasons as to why it is beneficial for other clients as well. Is the company thinking that business professionals will approach the software differently than data scientists?
Whitney Grace, December 08, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Watson Loses to Amazon Look Ahead for Work at Healthcare.gov or Homeland Security
December 5, 2013
The article titled IBM Introduces Watson to the Public Sector Cloud on GCN explores the potential for Watson now that IBM has opened it up to developers. IBM Watson Solutions recently won the 2013 North America New Product Innovation award for its combination of communication skills and evaluation abilities. Even more recently, IBM gave up on its competition with Amazon Web Services for a CIA contract for 10 years and $600M. But the loss has not rained out the parade, as the article explains:
“The initial target market for IBM Watson Developers Cloud is the private sector, with IBM touting third-party applications in such areas as retail and health care. But analysts say the offering will impact big data problems in the public sector, too. McCarthy sees potential for Watson-powered apps in such areas as fraud analysis, which the White House is ramping up due to worries about scammers taking advantage of consumers signing up for its new health care plans. “
Sounds like there is a job for Watson at Healthcare.gov, what with the massive potential for fraud issues. Another possibility is putting Watson to work on entity analytics for Homeland Security, looking for patterns in data. Entity analytics is mainly about comparing huge amounts of data and who could be better at that than IBM’s supercomputer?
Chelsea Kerwin, December 05, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
$450M Cloud Contract Stalled Due to DOD Concerns Over Demand
November 28, 2013
The article titled DOD Says “No Mas” On Commercial Cloud, Puts Brakes on $450M Contract on Ars Technica has some concerned that the government is rethinking its commitment to the cloud. Scott Stewart, contracting officer for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) explained the decision was caused by a lack of demand from the Defense Department.
The article explains:
“The contract, for which the DISA began drafting a request for proposals this summer, would have picked up to 10 cloud providers to supply Internet-accessible file storage, database hosting, Web hosting, and virtual servers—allowing the military to offload public, non-sensitive systems from its own infrastructure. As it turns out, the various military services and other DOD agencies that the DISA serves aren’t terribly interested in doing that. The federal government… has been trying to reduce the number of public-facing websites it maintains.”
It is yet to be determined whether the contract is being adjusted to meet the more modest requirements or scrapped entirely. As mentioned in the quote, this is not the only instance of concerns of overspending. In 2011 the White House froze all creation of new websites. In the meantime, the military has been dealing with security issues that have caused them to rely on DISA’s data centers.
Chelsea Kerwin, November 28, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint Online Capitalizes on Consumer File Sharing
November 21, 2013
Security concerns plague the enterprise when employees turn to unsanctioned cloud-based file sharing. But for years, the convenience of services like Dropbox could not be matched by sanctioned enterprise services. SharePoint Online hopes to change that by offering convenient and safe cloud storage options for employees. CMS Wire covers the story in their article, “What Consumerization of IT Means for SharePoint Online, SkyDrive Pro.”
The article begins:
“BYOD has taken over the enterprise, whether the enterprise likes it or not. But it’s not just BYOD. Employees are turning to consumer versions of file sharing cloud solutions like DropBox, Google Drive, SkyDrive (not to be confused with SkyDrive Pro) and others to access their documents no matter where they are. IT needs to resolve this problem, and it won’t be done by banning the use of these devices and apps. There’s a smarter way.”
ArnoldIT.com, a service run by longtime search expert Steven E. Arnold, is skeptical of SharePoint’s continued relevance in the changing enterprise environment. Arnold often argues that SharePoint is not capable of its main function, search, and has diluted its mission by focusing on add-ons. Regardless, SharePoint is still a large portion of the market and is worth following.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 21, 2013
SharePoint Online Limits Customization
November 18, 2013
SharePoint in the cloud is attempting to keep up with the overall trend of movement to the cloud. However, some organizations are looking for alternatives, complaining that Office 365 inhibits portability and customization. Redmond Magazine covers the news in their article, “SharePoint Shops Eying Windows Azure as Office 365 Alternative.”
The article says:
“Even the majority of those planning to move to SharePoint in the cloud are leaning toward Office 365 . . . While 66 percent of current SharePoint online users have Office 365 subscriptions (compared with 14 percent using Windows Azure and 15 percent using other cloud providers), of those planning to run SharePoint in the cloud in the future, 55 percent will opt for Office 365 and nearly 29 percent will use Windows Azure. That points to a segment of SharePoint shops that are turned off by the lack of code portability from older versions of SharePoint. By standing up their own SharePoint servers in Windows Azure, they get the benefit of running their custom or shrink-wrapped apps in the cloud.”
Stephen E. Arnold is a long time leader in the world of search – following the trend with his service Arnold IT. He has long argued that SharePoint is on shaky ground, and a plethora of noteworthy alternatives are not only emerging, they are being rapidly adopted. So it is no wonder that Windows Azure is a popular alternative, and may be one angle that Microsoft uses to maintain its relevance.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 18, 2013
DocumentCloud Uses OpenCalais and Offers Public and Private Functions
October 27, 2013
If you are in need of a relatively painless way to obtain metadata, DocumentCloud might be your solution. Every uploaded document is run through OpenCalais, allowing for user access to widespread information mentioned in them. It simplifies the search for people, places and organizations from your documents and allows you to plot them by dates mentioned in a timeline that can be as specific or general as the user desires.
“Use our document viewer to embed documents on your own website and introduce your audience to the larger paper trail behind your story.
From our catalog, reporters and the public alike can find your documents and follow links back to your reporting. DocumentCloud contains court filings, hearing transcripts, testimony, legislation, reports, memos, meeting minutes, and correspondence. See what’s already in our catalog. Make your documents part of the cloud.”
If you prefer privacy, that is a built-in feature. If you prefer to publish, your documents become a part of the landscape of primary sources in the DocumentCloud catalogue. There is also a highlighting feature that accommodates both public annotations and more private organizational notes. Each note has its own URL, enabling users to show their readers the exact information they need.
Chelsea Kerwin, October 27, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Tableau Collaborates with Google Cloud
October 24, 2013
Considering that Google has a stake in Recorded Future, which has visualization capabilities, this is an interesting development: The Sacramento Bee shares the press release, “Tableau Software Partners with Google to Visualize Big Data at Gartner IT Symposium.” The partnership mixes Tableau’s analytics with the Google Cloud Platform. Recently at Gartner‘s convention in Orlando, attendees were given a demonstration of the project. The write-up tells us:
“Tableau and Google created a series of dashboards to visualize enormous volumes of real-time sensory data gathered at Google I/O 2013, Google’s developers’ conference. Data measuring multiple environmental variables, such as room temperature and volume, was analyzed in Tableau and presented to attendees at the Gartner event. With Tableau’s visual analytics, Gartner attendees could see that from the data created, I/O conference managers could adjust the experience and gain insights in real time, like re-routing air-conditioning to optimize power and cooling when rooms got too warm.”
The project will also be demonstrated at Gartner’s upcoming events around the world; see the article for dates and places (though I’ll go ahead and tell you that Orlando was the only location in North America.) We wonder—is this Gartner/Tableau/Google trio a marketing play, or a significant step forward in data visualization?
Founded in 2003 and located in Seattle, Washington, Tableau Software grew from a project begun at Stanford University. Their priority is to help ordinary people use data to solve problems quickly and easily. The company is fully invested in their own philosophy; not only does Tableau use their own products, but they also rely heavily on data analysis for their business decisions.
Cynthia Murrell, October 24, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
HP Calls out AWS as Outdated
October 17, 2013
In an interesting twist, tech veteran Hewlett Packard calls out competitor Amazon for being too old-fashioned. Gigaom reports, “Beware of Amazon’s ‘Legacy’ Cloud, Says HP’s Cloud Guru.” We’d like to start with a curious observation—the proclamation contains nary a word about the advantages HP Autonomy offers over Amazon’s CloudSearch, still in beta. We’d think they would want to emphasize that advantage.
The focus of this PR push, though, is the rise of OpenStack, the growing open-source alternative to AWS. HP has contributed much to this project, apparently banking on the sale of related support and services. Writer Barb Darrow informs us:
“HP is hoping that the open-source fervor that propelled Linux to the top of the heap in enterprise and mobile operating systems will similarly motivate enterprise customers to take the OpenStack cloud plunge — with full HP services and support attached, of course.
“Given the sheer number of contributors to OpenStack — HP claims the fourth most contributions to the latest Havana release — it’s clear that the technology has piqued interest among developers and their employers. But since it launched four years ago, it’s still new in the game and businesses weighing a move into cloud need to know that moving legacy stuff to any cloud isn’t a day at the beach. HP, he said, will help assess those difficulties up front and, if needed, help with the move.”
Of course they will; that’s rather the point, isn’t it? Darrow notes that the popularity of OpenStack is fed by the shift toward the hybrid cloud. In this model, businesses can keep their most sensitive data on “private clouds” set up within a company’s own firewall. They can then share selected information in the public cloud for collaboration. The shift from one to the other, however, isn’t always as smooth as desired. This is where HP hopes to fill a niche it is helping to build.
Darrow refuses to dismiss the prospects of AWS. The platform has performed well since its launch eight years ago, rolling out new services at an impressive clip. Amazon must know potential clients are eyeing the hybrid cloud model. Should we expect a hybrid option from AWS soon?
Cynthia Murrell, October 17, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Search Engine Patent
October 16, 2013
SearchYourCloud called my attention to the US patent “Search Engine.” The number is US849573. You can snag a copy at the USPTO via its search engine. Be sure to refresh yourself about the USPTO syntax. Simon Bain, the inventor, is now a senior manager at SearchYourCloud. For those who want to keep pace with new methods germane to search, I found the explanation of the query expansion and deduplication processes of interest. You can get more information about SearchYourCloud at this link. Worth a look.
Stephen E Arnold, October 16, 2013
Project Hosts Offers Government Approved Cloud SaaS
October 15, 2013
Security is the primary concern for government agencies when it comes to software. And though Cloud services have really ramped up in recent years, some agencies that work with the government might be leery to use the Cloud for security reasons. However, a new offering by Project Hosts might change that. Read more in the latest article, “Project Hosts Offers SharePoint, CRM on Government-Approved Azure Cloud.”
The article begins:
“Hosting provider Project Hosts is making its software-as-a-service solutions (including Microsoft PPM, SharePoint and Dynamics CRM) available on a Windows Azure cloud infrastructure that meets the necessary security assessments required by US government offices and agencies. Last week, Microsoft announced that Windows Azure had been granted Provisional Authorization to Operate (P-ATO) from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Joint Authorization Board (JAB).”
A variety of deployments for SharePoint is really essential for increased adoption throughout the enterprise. And while SharePoint continues to be the default solution for enterprise search, there are criticisms. Stephen E. Arnold, of ArnoldIT, is a longtime industry expert in search and a frequent critic of SharePoint. Arnold states that where SharePoint truly misses the mark most often, is in its most basic function, search. In a recent article, Arnold argues that SharePoint 2013 was found unsatisfactory in its basic functions when deployed by many organizations. Stay tuned for the latest SharePoint news and the best advice on how to use it successfully.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 15, 2013
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