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THE INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE Information Management Blog 5 Opportunities and 3 Threats for Oracle
With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle now has a few things going for it, including something no other IT giant has -- not IBM, not Microsoft and not SAP. And lurking also are a few challenges. So, that loud burp we heard was Oracle swallowing Sun with joy (although not, perhaps, with Joy -- Bill Joy, that is). Oracle paid a hefty price for Sun, but that's no great shakes compared with all the goodies Oracle gets from Sun's basket of gifts. Here are five them that stand out in particular, and which present Oracle and Oracle customers with unprecedented opportunity. Continue reading "5 Opportunities and 3 Threats for Oracle" Comments Clarabridge Asks, Are You Customer Experienced?
Add "customer" to Jimi Hendrix' song title and you have a question central to last week's Clarabridge Customer Connections (C3) conference, Are You Customer Experienced? Clarabridge is a leading text-analytics vendor, delivering voice of the customer and related business solutions. The C3 conference's Orlando-Disney venue lent itself to a bit of Goofy-ness, and CEO Sid Banerjee indeed riffed off the magical journey theme in his post-conference write-up. Forrester analyst Bruce Temkin, who titled his conference summation It's Time For Text Analytics, used a different magical kingdom, that of the Wizard of Oz, to illustrate a customer-experience voyage of discovery in his conference keynote, although a panel he later moderated wasn't immune to an intrusion of Disneyicity. Continue reading "Clarabridge Asks, Are You Customer Experienced?" CommentsCMIS is Here: What Does it Mean for You?
In late 2008, OASIS (OASIS Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards--the not-for-profit consortium that drives open standards) announced a committee that would standardize a Web services interface specification that would enable interoperability of enterprise content management (ECM) systems. EMC, IBM and Microsoft lead the way by developing the initial draft for the standard. Other ECM vendors, like Alfresco, Open Text, Oracle and others, participated and provided comments on a draft standard. OASIS put the v1.0 standard out for public comment through the end of last year and received a flurry of feedback. CMIS, the resulting standard, stands for Content Management Interoperability Services. The goal of CMIS is to make sure content repositories and solutions are able to interoperate by being independent of operating systems and architectures. It focuses on the basic content functions such as creating, reading, writing, deleting and searching for content across repositories. Continue reading "CMIS is Here: What Does it Mean for You?" CommentsDatabase Snooping Threatens Liberty - And We're All Making Matters Worse
Every year or two, I get back on my soapbox to say:
Continue reading "Database Snooping Threatens Liberty - And We're All Making Matters Worse" CommentsInformatica Starts 2010 with a Bang
In a move that will send (pleasant) tremors in the world of data management, Informatica snapped up leading MDM vendor Siperian. I'm excited by this event, and here's why. Informatica's acquisition of Siperian is far from unexpected. Not too long ago, I posed the following question: "What's stopping Informatica from acquiring an OEM partner like Siperian?" Others too would have had the same thought. Informatica CEO Sohaib Abbasi (indirectly) explains the delay in acquiring Siperian by stating that they are following a roadmap (read here for more). Well, ok, maybe. At this point, that's irrelevant. So why is this great for Informatica and for customers and IT practitioners? Continue reading "Informatica Starts 2010 with a Bang" CommentsSemantic Search Footnotes: Concepts, Ontologies & Real Time
I want to respond to a few comments/suggestions I received about my recent Intelligent Enterprise story, Breakthrough Analysis: Two + Nine Types of Semantic Search -- it also ran in InformationWeek -- regarding semantic-search definitions and examples. Continue reading "Semantic Search Footnotes: Concepts, Ontologies & Real Time" CommentsOracle on SharePoint: Waiting for Answers
Among the various categories of content technologies that CMS Watch evaluates, Oracle has been very quiet over the past year. For the past two years, actually, Oracle has urged customers and partners to look forward to the "11g" series of upgrades across its various application sets. In certain cases, various 11g-labelled capabilities have been slipstreamed into existing versions, especially on the ECM and WCM side. But overall, the major 11g-branded upgrades have created enormous expectations among Oracle customers. Continue reading "Oracle on SharePoint: Waiting for Answers" CommentsNetezza Skimmer Joins the Short List
As I previously complained, last week wasn't a very convenient time for me to have briefings. So when Netezza emailed to say it would release its new entry-level Skimmer appliance this week, while I asked for and got a Friday afternoon briefing, I kept it quick and basic. That said, highlights of my Netezza Skimmer briefing included: Continue reading "Netezza Skimmer Joins the Short List" CommentsSentiment Analysis, Enterprise Content, and Social Media, Year 2010
Sentiment analysis is one of my favorite topics: one of the most challenging and one of the most interesting uses of text technologies. News and social media, e-mail, surveys -- the gamut of text sources -- are full of subjective information: opinion, attitudes, emotion, and mood, with a wide variety of current and possible business uses. Application areas include customer satisfaction and support, marketing, financial markets, media and publishing, and politics and policy: essentially any computing application sourced from human communications. Sentiment analysis represents a huge opportunity and it presents technical and solution challenges. That's why I've created a new conference, the Sentiment Analysis Symposium, slated for April 13 in New York. Continue reading "Sentiment Analysis, Enterprise Content, and Social Media, Year 2010" CommentsTwo Cornerstones of Oracle's Database Hardware Strategy
After several months of careful optimization, Oracle managed to pick the most inconvenient* day possible for me to get an Exadata update from Juan Loaiza. But the call itself was long and fascinating, with the two main takeaways being:
Continue reading "Two Cornerstones of Oracle's Database Hardware Strategy" CommentsForget ECM: It's Document Management From Here On In
At CMS Watch we frequently have to explain to people why we have separate research streams for WCM (Web Content Management) and ECM (Enterprise Content Management). The explanation is frequently a response to the question, "aren't they just the same thing?" The simple answer is no, they are not. Continue reading "Forget ECM: It's Document Management From Here On In" CommentsHow to Develop and Drive an ECM Strategy
One of the toughest parts of enterprise content management is developing an overall strategy. The key is to have a holistic strategy that sets forth a vision for all aspects of ECM. The strategy must be driven by the business, not left solely to IT. Strategy is also a living process, and not a one-time event. With all this in mind, here's a four-step approach for developing an effective ECM strategy: Continue reading "How to Develop and Drive an ECM Strategy" CommentsWill Oracle Kill MySQL?
MySQL founder Michael "Monty" Widenius is spearheading an energetic attempt to stall Oracle's acquisition of Sun. His concern is that once Oracle buys Sun, it will decimate MySQL. Should we be worried? Concerned about the anti-competitive impact of Oracle's acquiring MySQL as part of the Sun takeover, European Union (EU) regulators have held up the stop sign on the merger while they investigate the matter. EU regulators tend to come down forcefully on any perceived indiscretions in mergers and acquisitions, so Oracle knows that this isn't something to wish away and is scrambling for damage control, including a series of commitments aimed at MySQL customers and developers. Chances are, Oracle will prevail and the EU will approve the merger. Continue reading "Will Oracle Kill MySQL?" CommentsThe Lighter Side of Consulting
The other day I ran into an old Consulting mentor of mine. Smooth, superior and self-assured, the man was Consulting Personified. But now gone were the suit and smirk, replace by sneakers, stubble and a sullen look. Could it be The Curse of the Consultant? "What happened?" I asked, as I guided him to a table and ordered us coffee. Looking slightly desperate, he ran his hands through his thinning hair -- slick no more, I noticed -- then grabbed my hand and held it tightly, as if afraid I would vanish. "You remember the good old days?" he asked plaintively. I nodded, trying to gently shake my hand off. Continue reading "The Lighter Side of Consulting" CommentsOracle Lifts Cloud Over MySQL Storage Engine Vendors
Earlier this month, Oracle put out a press release promising to play nicely with MySQL if its Sun takeover is approved. The parts in italics below are quotes. My comments are in plain text. 1. Continued Availability of Storage Engine APIs. Oracle shall maintain and periodically enhance MySQL's Pluggable Storage Engine Architecture to allow users the flexibility to choose from a portfolio of native and third party supplied storage engines. MySQL's Pluggable Storage Engine Architecture shall mean MySQL's current practice of using, publicly-available, documented application programming interfaces to allow storage engine vendors to "plug" into the MySQL database server. Documentation shall be consistent with the documentation currently provided by Sun. Continue reading "Oracle Lifts Cloud Over MySQL Storage Engine Vendors" CommentsIntegration: ECM Curse and Opportunity
With the proliferation of enterprise content management (ECM) vendors at many organizations, a new challenge is developing around managing federated ECM systems. Can the content management applications within an organization be integrated to help users find the information they need? Continue reading "Integration: ECM Curse and Opportunity" CommentsGoogle and the Meaning of Half Open
Google is half open: the conclusion I draw after reading product management SVP Jonathan Rosenberg's long, rambling essay, "The Meaning of Open," a seeming apologia pro vita sua posted December 21 to the Official Google Blog. Rosenberg and Google get it -- open source software creates value for everyone and give-back is essential; open information creates choice and engenders trust among individuals who engage in the Internet ecosystem -- but for all the pride and confidence and even wisdom conveyed in the essay -- Closed systems are well-defined and profitable, but only for those who control them. Open systems are chaotic and profitable, but only for those who understand them well and move faster than everyone else. Closed systems grow quickly while open systems evolve more slowly, so placing your bets on open requires the optimism, will, and means to think long term. Fortunately, at Google we have all three of these.-- the repeated assertions of Google's openness only reinforce that Google's core, its strategic direction -- Rosenberg's own product management brief -- is closed rather than community-driven. In the end, for Google, (updating a Vulgate translation of a phrase of Isaiah's, adding tech-marketing talk), "my secret [sauce] is my own." Continue reading "Google and the Meaning of Half Open" CommentsIntelligent Enterprise Top Blog Posts of 2009
News coverage gives you one version of the truth, but there's nothing like the instant expert analysis blogs can bring to breaking stories. Here are the top-15 posts of the year from the Intelligent Enterprise blogosphere: 1. Serious Design Failure at USAspending.gov It was hailed as ushering in a new era of open government, but Seth Grimes uncovered plenty of data-analysis and data-visualization flaws at USAspending.gov. 2. Microsoft's Big Change on Performance Management (and BI) Cindi Howson was among the first to report on Microsoft's move to dump PerformancePoint Server and move most -- but not all -- of its functionality into the Enterprise Edition of SharePoint. Continue reading "Intelligent Enterprise Top Blog Posts of 2009" CommentsHow Did Our 2009 Predictions Fare?
This week CMS Watch issued its twelve predictions for 2010. In this post, I look back at our 2009 predictions to see how we did. The 2009 predictions were: 1. Open source ECM players get an initial boost. Yes, the recession gave them a boost, though smart customers are still asking tough questions about multi-year total cost of ownership. 2. Office 14 casts long shadow on SharePoint. Yes, and no. SharePoint 2010 has energized Redmond's consulting channel. The new version is mostly casting a long shadow on 3rd-party SharePoint add-ons and some enterprise procurement teams looking to delay strategic decisions. Continue reading "How Did Our 2009 Predictions Fare?" CommentsData Architecture? What's That?
Data architecture has always been a topic close to my heart. "Overloaded and overlooked" is how I define a data architect's role. Has anything changed over the past decade? Yes, but possibly for the worse. Years ago, I wrote an article in Intelligent Enterprise on the dot-com data architect. It was very well-received and also was the beginning of a long relationship with IE. Some DAMA (Data Management International) chapters invited me to speak on the topic. I accepted the offer from the Washington DC chapter (less travel) and was presenting to the audience near Union Station in DC... even as an airplane loaded with innocent passengers overhead was being coerced into a steep dive into the Pentagon. Then, everything changed. Continue reading "Data Architecture? What's That?" CommentsOverlooking Problems with Oracle's Exadata
I can't quite figure out where IDC's review of Exadata V2 ends and Stephen Swoyer's opinion begins, but in the latter's article "Why Oracle's Exadata May Attract CXO's," some questionable suggestions are offered. Continue reading "Overlooking Problems with Oracle's Exadata" CommentsECM Features to Look for in 2010
Over the last several years, there has been a lot of consolidation among enterprise content management (ECM) vendors. Still, enterprise organizations have a lot of vendor from which to choose, and the competition remains fierce. There are five areas that we hope vendors will explore in 2010, and as buyers, we hope that you will press for roadmaps on these fronts prior to making a purchase. Continue reading "ECM Features to Look for in 2010" CommentsThree Reasons to List CMIS in Your Document Management RFP
First off let me state boldly and clearly CMIS (Content Management Interoperability Standard) is an important document management (a.k.a., ECM) standard -- the most important standard. But if your world is solely one of HTML and CSS then you can stop reading right here... CMIS was recently ratified by OASIS and is already appearing in many RFPs. Nevertheless, it is a little misunderstood by some, and at times gets overlooked or misplaced. So here are three concise and valid reasons for putting CMIS on your list of RFP requirements. Continue reading "Three Reasons to List CMIS in Your Document Management RFP" CommentsUnlocking Value in Content Management
ECM systems often become content silos, accessible only by a limited set of applications and users. Organizations want to break open those silos, according to a new reader survey by InformationWeek Analytics. Continue reading "Unlocking Value in Content Management" CommentsStop Blaming IT!
"IT is the problem." I heard this epithet issued by a cloud computing guru at last month's Interop conference. But you could replace "cloud computing" with nearly any emerging technology and hear the same thing. Enterprise IT just doesn't adopt new technologies as fast as many consultants and analysts would wish. Continue reading "Stop Blaming IT!" CommentsTurn Content Challenges Into Opportunities
There are plenty of parallels between business intelligence (BI) and enterprise content management (ECM). For starters, the leading vendors in both markets (in terms of software revenue) were snatched up by the technology giants, yet plenty of best-of-breed players, upstarts and open source alternatives remain. But there is one key difference that has kept BI in the limelight while content management has often languished on IT to-do lists. I'm drawing parallels between BI and ECM because today we're launching the Intelligent Enterprise ECM TechCenter, a mini-site aimed at helping you to treat documents, e-mail messages, forms and collaborative content like valuable assets. Enterprises have done a fairly good job of treating data as assets, thanks to information-rich, well-maintained data warehouses. But those seeking to make the most of content have not had as much success in building comprehensive ECM repositories. If you want some insight as to why ECM deployments fail or fail to get off the ground, download the In-Depth Report "10 Gotchas that Derail ECM Initiatives" and you'll find a detailed explanation of each of the following mistakes: Continue reading "Turn Content Challenges Into Opportunities" CommentsThe Myth of 360 Degree Views
We've all encountered the promise of 360-degree customer views, marketing-speak that asserts that BI solution X, Customer Relationship management (CRM) solution Y, or Sales Force Automation (SFA) solution Z considers customer information from all angles with the implication that (everyone else's) non-360-degree solutions are inferior. Yet I've never seen the "360-degree" claim fulfilled. Some element is always missing. I can't think of a single solution that considers all pertinent customer information --
Continue reading "The Myth of 360 Degree Views" CommentsReports of Perfectly-Balanced Hardware Configurations are Greatly Exaggerated
Data warehouse appliance and software appliance vendors like to claim that they've worked out just the right hardware configuration(s), and that a single configuration is correct for a fairly broad range of workloads. But there are a lot of reasons to be dubious about that. Specific vendor evidence includes: Continue reading "Reports of Perfectly-Balanced Hardware Configurations are Greatly Exaggerated" CommentsIs the SharePoint Bubble Going to Burst?
My colleagues Tony Byrne and Shawn Shell (the lead analysts for CMS Watch SharePoint Research) recently reported on the hysteria generated around product announcements for SharePoint 2010 earlier this month in Las Vegas. There is plenty to be excited about in SP2010, especially if you belong to the SharePoint channel of resellers, consultants, developers, and system integrators. But over the past few weeks I have been noticing something of a shadow side to this excitement. I may well be wrong, but I am starting to get the distinct impression that the SharePoint bubble is about to burst. Or at the very least, that enthusiasm for SharePoint is waning and demand for the platform set will begin to plateau. Continue reading "Is the SharePoint Bubble Going to Burst?" CommentsCEP for ETL: Next-Generation Tech for Low-Latency Data Warehousing
Complex event processing (CEP) is the next big thing in data integration. At least that's the game plan at Microsoft and Informatica. Given that IBM and Oracle also have CEP available on their technology toolbelts, there's little doubt that success will breed more adaptations of CEP for low-latency data integration. In case you're not familiar with CEP (also known as stream processing), it's a technology that has matured out of rarified use in financial trading and government intelligence gathering scenarios. Today CEP is being employed for real-time network threat detection, transportation optimization, online commerce and smart grid power management. For CEP, "real time" means processing capacities and speeds ranging anywhere from thousands to millions of events (or patterns) detected within sub-seconds or even milliseconds. Here's how Tom Casey, General Manager, SQL Server Business Intelligence, describes how Microsoft intends to exploit CEP technologies set to debut in next year's planned SQL Server 2008 R2 launch (and set to debut this month in a community technology preview release): Continue reading "CEP for ETL: Next-Generation Tech for Low-Latency Data Warehousing" CommentsDealing With the ECM Skills Shortage
Enterprises are facing something of a recruitment dilemma at the moment; one HR professional at a major healthcare firm told me this week that enterprise content management (ECM)-skilled applicants are looking for approximately 40% more in base pay than their peers with a background in CRM or ERP. This healthcare firm simply doesn't have budget to make the required hires, and that is not an uncommon situation. Truth is, ECM professionals have been in short supply for a long time -- and even mediocre people can demand and receive decent money in this sector. This of course is a real challenge for employers. Continue reading "Dealing With the ECM Skills Shortage" CommentsEnterprise 2.0: Practical and ROI-Oriented
The (excellent) Enterprise 2.0 Conference concluded last week in San Francisco. Here are some thoughts on several of the key issues bandied about, including ROI, adoption, usability, SharePoint, and the evolving industry. My first observation is that the conference vibe was much more practical, and much less like a religious revival meeting than previous Enterprise 2.0 events. Some gurus complained about a lack of passion and energy, but I think Andrew McAfee set a great tone in his keynote when he exhorted the audience to replace liberation theology with more realistic goals. Continue reading "Enterprise 2.0: Practical and ROI-Oriented" CommentsInformatica Scores Big with New Release, Yet...
Today Informatica released version 9 of its flagship data integration suite, which it calls as the "single most important release" in its history. Informatica 9 undoubtedly packs quite a punch, yet I'm not satisfied. First, let us give Informatica its due credit. To quote the company, Informatica 9 "uniquely delivers a comprehensive platform by combining products in six categories: enterprise data integration, data quality, B2B data exchange, application information lifecycle management, complex event processing and cloud computing data integration," and can be deployed "on-premise or in the internet cloud." Continue reading "Informatica Scores Big with New Release, Yet..." CommentsIntegration Dogfight in the Clouds
A startup called SnapLogic is poised to challenge incumbent Informatica with an approach that seems to combine data integration -- Informatica's forté -- with online app stores (think Apple). Things are poised to get interesting. The idea behind the SnapStore, now thrown open for a 100-day beta test by SnapLogic, is similar to the Apple application store: developers can load their applications on a storefront hosted by SnapLogic; when a sale is made, they receive 70% of the price while SnapLogic retains 30%. The difference is that these applications – called Snapps – are in fact data integration (i.e. ETL) components such as connectors, transformations and pipelines (i.e. programs). These components will all need to use the DataFlow API ("SnAPI"); in turn, this ensures that components can be build on top of, and together with, each other. But does this imply vendor lock-in? Nope. SnapLogic Chairman/CEO Gaurav Dhillon tells me (via email) developers are free to write the components in a popular Web language like Java or Python and then isolate the SnAPI dependencies. In many cases, existing libraries can easily be wrapped with a SnAPI wrapper. Continue reading "Integration Dogfight in the Clouds" CommentsMicrosoft Previews SQL Server Upgrades, In-Memory Analysis
You heard about Microsoft's Kilimanjaro and Madison projects last year, but these code names are going away now that the company is getting closer to releasing new versions of Microsoft SQL Server. Microsoft announced today that a community technical preview (CTP) of SQL Server 2008 R2 will be available this month that will include in-memory analysis capabilities. It also announced what will be called the Parallel Data Warehouse edition of SQL Server, which is set to debut in the first half of next year. But perhaps the biggest surprise is that IBM will be a hardware partner on Microsoft's Fast Track Data Warehouse reference configurations and the coming data warehouse edition. First let's detail the news everyone expected. The "November CTP," as it's called, will let people try out two new in-memory analysis capabilities: Continue reading "Microsoft Previews SQL Server Upgrades, In-Memory Analysis" CommentsRecords and the Threat of Cloud Computing
I recently hosted a panel for ARMA that discussed compliance and records management issues related to Cloud Computing. It proved to be one of the most thought-provoking sessions I have been involved in for a long time. What became abundantly clear very early on was that records managers and compliance officers really need to get their head around cloud computing, and fast. In the session we spent some time explaining that for every vendor out there that claims to have a cloud solution, only one in ten really has. That "cloud" relates to a virtualized world utilizing the Internet as a network -- whereas hosted and SaaS options (the nine out of ten) almost always have a specific data center location that they operate from. Continue reading "Records and the Threat of Cloud Computing" CommentsAnalytics Aplenty at IBM's IOD Conference
What were the odds we'd hear all about analytics at this week's IBM Information on Demand (IOD) conference in Las Vegas? I wish I could have placed that bet, as it seems analytics is all IBM is talking about these days. (I agree with Neil Raden's "whatever that means" comment in this blog, which suggests that the term is ill defined and over used.) "Analytics" was in the very name of two out of four new products announced. Here's my quick take: Continue reading "Analytics Aplenty at IBM's IOD Conference" CommentsTeradata's Hardware Strategy and Tactics
In my opinion, the most important takeaways about Teradata's hardware strategy from the Teradata Partners conference last week are:
Continue reading "Teradata's Hardware Strategy and Tactics" CommentsMore on Teradata's SSD Speedster and (Cautious) Public-Cloud Offering
Coming into this week's Teradata Partners user group conference in Washington D.C., I wanted to know more about the Teradata Extreme Performance Appliance 4555. As the first-ever solid-state-disk (SSD) data warehouse appliance, this speedster is worth crowing about. But as I reported in this article, the announcement was only mentioned in passing during Monday's keynote. It was a dim bulb compared to the bright spotlights IBM and Oracle trained on their recent IBM Smart Analytic System and Exadata 2 launches, respectively. Perhaps Teradata execs thought it would be best to lay low on salesmanship at a user-group event. And what I'm talking about here is the style of the announcement, not the substance. But, honestly, this is a battle for the top spot in data warehousing! Instead of having a Partners-emblazoned Camaro burst onto the stage, as happened during the opening keynote, I would have had the 4555 burst onto the stage and then offered comparisons of SSD vs. conventional-disk performance on complex, real-world queries. For those who wanted to learn more about the 4555, there was a working demo in the exhibit hall. Scott Gnau, Chief Development Officer and head of Teradata Labs, also offered a briefing for analysts and media. Here are few highlights of what he had to say: Continue reading "More on Teradata's SSD Speedster and (Cautious) Public-Cloud Offering" CommentsThis Week at the Teradata Partners User Conference
Here are some highlights of what's going on, although names, dates, and details will have to await conversations and press releases this week.
Continue reading "This Week at the Teradata Partners User Conference " CommentsOracle's Exadata Redux and Fusion Apps Plug
This week at the Open World event in San Fransisco, Oracle put a bit more flesh on the bones of last month's Sun Oracle Exadata 2 announcement. It also offered a peek at Oracle Fusion Applications, touting its inseparable embedded BI and collaboration capabilities. It was an impressive and tantalizing event (complete with a surprise visit from CAHL e FOUR knee uhhh Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger), but it was a still a bit long on speeds, feeds and promises. To back up the cryptic Exadata 2 claims issued last month, Oracle offered a wave of press releases and presentations. First up, Oracle and Sun aired the results of a TPC-C benchmark showing Exadata 2 to have achieved the fastest scores yet on that lab-based test. Next, details were shared on the Sun Storage F5100 Flash Array, the turbo charger inside Exadata 2. A long list of Exadata customers was shared, several of whom reportedly presented during the event. Finally, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison took the stage late yesterday to reiterate Exadata 2 top-speed and low-cost claims (he also introduced next-generation tech support, as explained here). Then he threw down the gauntlet to IBM, saying, "if you can find an application running on an IBM computer that we can't run at least twice as fast on a Sun/Oracle machine, we'll give you $10 million. Continue reading "Oracle's Exadata Redux and Fusion Apps Plug" CommentsOracle Exadata 2 Capacity Pricing Revealed
Analyzing Oracle Exadata pricing is always harder than one would first think. But I've finally gotten around to doing an Oracle Exadata 2 pricing spreadsheet. The main takeaways are:
Continue reading "Oracle Exadata 2 Capacity Pricing Revealed" CommentsHadoop and the Big-Data Revolution
There's a revolution underway in the use of big data, and Hadoop, the open-source distributed computing system, is at the center of it. Apache Hadoop is most often associated with MapReduce data processing, but it also includes a distributed file system and subprojects including the Hive data warehouse. All of the above were at the subject of success stories, accolades and palpable excitement at today's Hadoop World in New York City. Executives from Yahoo!, Facebook, eHarmony, IBM and JP Morgan Chase were here offering insight into how Hadoop is changing expectations for analysis of big data. Sharing a few highlights from today's presentations, here's what these organizations are doing with Hadoop: Continue reading "Hadoop and the Big-Data Revolution" CommentsRecovery.gov Double Fault: Broken Data Feeds
The relaunched recovery.gov government-transparency site no longer supports automated data feeds. These feeds had allowed users of the 1.0 site to perform their own valued-added analyses, "the whole point of accountability and transparency," according one site user, an executive with a large, government systems integrator. According to that user, who asked not to be named, referring to the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (RATB) and lead contractor Smartronix, "from a software architecture standpoint, they seem to have missed a key principle here: backward compatibility." RATB spokesperson Edward Pound confirmed that the relaunched site no longer offers the feeds. Pound did not know if notice had been provided to users, on-site or through another mechanism, of the discontinuation of the data-feed interface. He stressed that the Recovery Board is working hard to meet emerging user needs and improve site capabilities in furtherance of its non-political mission of promoting open government. Continue reading "Recovery.gov Double Fault: Broken Data Feeds" CommentsOracle Taps HyperRoll, IBM Sells U2 Databases
You probably heard that Oracle plans to acquire HyperRoll's key assets, but IBM was pretty quiet about selling off its U2 databases (UniData and UniVerse) to Rocket Software. Here's a bit more context behind both of these moves. As InformationWeek reported yesterday, Oracle is on track to acquire key assets from HyperRoll, namely its Data Performance Management Suite, which speeds up reporting of financial results. The technology can draw data out of leading databases, including Oracle, IBM's DB2, Microsoft's SQL Server, Teradata, and Sybase. It can also aggregate data from BI systems, including SAP Business Objects, MicroStrategy, Cognos, and other OLAP systems. Continue reading "Oracle Taps HyperRoll, IBM Sells U2 Databases" CommentsRelaunched Recovery.gov Fails Accessibility Standards
Recovery.gov, a showcase government-transparency Web site that relaunched on Monday, fails to meet U.S. federal government Section 508 accessibility standards or accessibility best practices. The non-compliance issues relate to display of data tables -- an essential point given the site's promise of "Data, Data & More Data" -- despite on-site compliance claims. Other elements including navigation maps, while compliant, are poorly designed. Sharron Rush, co-founder and executive director of accessibility-advocacy organization Knowbility, goes so far as to state, "The recovery.gov Web site is a good example of what NOT to do for accessibility in my opinion." Continue reading "Relaunched Recovery.gov Fails Accessibility Standards" CommentsThoughts on Integrating OLTP and Data Warehousing (Especially in Exadata 2)
Oracle is pushing Exadata 2 as being a great system for OLTP (OnLine Transaction Processing), data warehousing or, presumably, the integration of same. This claim rests on a few premises, namely:
Continue reading "Thoughts on Integrating OLTP and Data Warehousing (Especially in Exadata 2)" Comments2009 ECM Market Overview
As I have said before, at CMS Watch we focus on evaluating individual vendors. Nevertheless, we do think it is important for every buyer to grasp a basic understanding of underlying market dynamics. For those of you interested at what is happening in the world of Enterprise Content Management (ECM), here is a SlideShare recording that looks at our updated Cross-Check analysis of the vendors as of September, 2009. Continue reading "2009 ECM Market Overview" CommentsThe Vendor-Analyst Echo Chamber Game
Had a nice chat the other day with an old acquaintance who previously held two interesting jobs: as a practice lead at a major technology analyst firm, as well as heading up "analyst relations" for a major vendor. This is not uncommon; there's a revolving door between staff at vendors and analyst firms. We talked a bit about the institutional conflicts of interests when analyst firms consult for both buyers and vendors -- a primary frustration that drove him out of his analyst firm as well as me to found CMS Watch. (It's topic Alan has already plumbed here.) We also discussed a related issue that strikes me as potentially more insidious for buyers. My colleague pointed out that software vendors typically don't spend money with analyst firms to bribe them outright. Rather, they purchase attention through which they can try to get an analyst to define the marketplace and customer challenges according to that particular vendor's approach. Continue reading "The Vendor-Analyst Echo Chamber Game" CommentsTwitter Stirs Up the Analyst Industry
A few recent tweets got me thinking: Twitter has stirred up the analyst industry. Every Twitter user gets the same on-site visibility and capabilities. As a result, celebrities excluded, authority chez Twitter derives from your network and from your tweets and only after that from your extra-Twitter identity (a.k.a. your biography and employment). Since open publishing is an independent-analyst ethos, we independents have taken to wide-open Twitter like, well, whales to the air. Continue reading "Twitter Stirs Up the Analyst Industry" Comments
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